If it be asked, what influence nurture and training have if children are good without it, we may answer at once, that these have done enough in having supplied a counterbalance to the depraving influences of life,—the awakening passions and the environment.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross

But soon he returned, and changing his form, together with his voice, he said, “Countryman, if thou hast seen any cows pass along this way, give me thy help, and break silence about the theft; a female, coupled together with its bull shall be presented thee as a reward.”
— from The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII by Ovid

Feeling weak and as though his head were perfectly empty, he went into his study, lay down on his sofa, and covered his face with a handkerchief that he might not be bothered by the flies.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

He still took refuge there in summer, but when Mattie came to live at the farm he had to give her his stove, and consequently the room was uninhabitable for several months of the year.
— from Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Moreover in the military sports, wherein equals vie with their equals in contests of swiftness and strength, affable and condescending, he conquered and was conquered with the same countenance; nor did he spurn any competitor who should offer; in his acts kind according to the occasion; in his conversation no less mindful of the ease of others than of his own dignity; and, a thing than which nothing is more agreeable to the people, he administered his offices by the same line of conduct by which he had gained them.
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy

“The gypsy!” said Mahiette, suddenly retracing her steps, and clasping her son’s arm forcibly.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

“Sinner that I am!” said Sancho, “then why does your worship put off making it and teaching it to me?” “Peace, friend,” answered Don Quixote; “greater secrets I mean to teach thee and greater favours to bestow upon thee; and for the present let us see to the dressing, for my ear pains me more than I could wish.” Sancho took out some lint and ointment from the alforjas; but when Don Quixote came to see his helmet shattered, he was like to lose his senses, and clapping his hand upon his sword and raising his eyes to heaven, he said, “I swear by the Creator of all things and the four Gospels in their fullest extent, to do as the great Marquis of Mantua did when he swore to avenge the death of his nephew Baldwin (and that was not to eat bread from a table-cloth, nor embrace his wife, and other points which, though I cannot now call them to mind, I here grant as expressed) until I take complete vengeance upon him who has committed such an offence against me.” Hearing this, Sancho said to him, “Your worship should bear in mind, Senor Don Quixote, that if the knight has done what was commanded him in going to present himself before my lady Dulcinea del Toboso, he will have done all that he was bound to do, and does not deserve further punishment unless he commits some new offence.”
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

When quite young he showed a calling for art strong enough to combat the will of his father, who wished him to adopt the legal profession; he went to Paris, entered Bouchardon's studio, found a friend and protector in this master; became acquainted with Madame Geoffrin, Sophie Arnould, the Baron d'Holbach, and J.-J. Rousseau.
— from Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z by Anatole Cerfberr

I’ll tell you, Sir Lucentio: when the priest Should ask if Katherine should be his wife, ’Ay, by gogs-wouns’ quoth he, and swore so loud That, all amaz’d, the priest let fall the book; And as he stoop’d again to take it up, The mad-brain’d bridegroom took him such a cuff That down fell priest and book, and book and priest: ‘Now take them up,’ quoth he ‘if any list.’
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

Dr. Duck (who was chancellor of Wells) said, that he had seen a copy of it among the records of the tower at London.
— from Miscellanies Upon Various Subjects by John Aubrey

He had snatched a carbine from a marine, and was pointing it at the recent prisoners.
— from Tom Swift and His Submarine Boat; Or, Under the Ocean for Sunken Treasure by Victor Appleton

He had not only refused to help me to obtain her liberty, but he had slandered and contemned her to my face.
— from Grace O'Malley, Princess and Pirate by Robert Machray

they however shot and caught three kangaroos.
— from The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson With the journal of her first commander Lieutenant James Grant by Ida Lee

At Plaisance they have sequestered a chalice and a sum of 175 franks, the personal property of M. l'abbé Orse, first vicar.
— from The Insurrection in Paris by Davy (An Englishman)

The thought made him sick, actually caused his stomach to quiver with a sort of nausea.
— from The Ramblin' Kid by Earl Wayland Bowman

Enter Old Woman , R. Her costume, bodice, quilted petticoat, sugar-loaf hat, high-heeled shoes, and cane.
— from The Exhibition Drama Comprising Drama, Comedy, and Farce, Together with Dramatic and Musical Entertainments by George M. (George Melville) Baker

Being now, as I have said, a considerable number of us, and in condition to defend ourselves, the first thing we did was to give every one his hand that we would not separate from one another upon any occasion whatsoever, but that we would live and die together; that we would kill no food, but that we would distribute it in public; and that we would be in all things guided by the majority, and not insist upon our own resolutions in anything if the majority were against it; that we would appoint a captain among us to be our governor or leader during pleasure; that while he was in office we would obey him without reserve, on pain of death; and that every one should take turn, but the captain was not to act in any particular thing without advice of the rest, and by the majority.
— from The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton by Daniel Defoe