As tabooed persons are believed to be in a perilous state—for example, the relations of the slain man are liable to the attacks of his indignant ghost—it is especially necessary to isolate them from contact with spirits; hence the prohibition to touch raw meat.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

Instead of entering into an effectual negotiation with the powerful armies of the West, whose resolution might decide, or at least must balance, the mighty contest; instead of advancing without delay towards Rome and Italy, where his presence was impatiently expected, Niger trifled away in the luxury of Antioch those irretrievable moments which were diligently improved by the decisive activity of Severus.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

And such an existence is even now the lot of many, during some considerable portion of their lives.
— from Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill

The Bishops, differing from the King in the late business in the House of Lords, having caused this and what is like to follow, for every body is encouraged nowadays to speak, and even to preach, as I have heard one of them, as bad things against them as ever in the year 1640; which is a strange change.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

When the uneasiness is either small in itself, or remote from us, it engages not the imagination, nor is able to convey an equal concern for the future and contingent good, as for the present and real evil Upon its acquiring greater force, we become so interested in the concerns of the person, as to be sensible both of his good and had fortune; and from that compleat sympathy there arises pity and benevolence.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

But however the case may stand with other passions and impressions, it is certain, that pride requires the assistance of some foreign object, and that the organs, which produce it, exert not themselves like the heart and arteries, by an original internal movement.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

C I repeated 1 , Why am I especially not to be let off? 1 Reading ἔτι ἐγὼ εἶπον .
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

I envy not the man whose conscience tells him that he has disregarded these!
— from Anabasis by Xenophon

"Who?" say I, eagerly, "not that it could have been any one."
— from Nancy: A Novel by Rhoda Broughton

In the latter connection it is especially noteworthy that the mature females of many [Pg 52] kinds of apes suffer a periodical discharge of blood from the womb, which corresponds to the menstruation of the human female.
— from The Riddle of the Universe at the close of the nineteenth century by Ernst Haeckel

Others adopted the principles of the disciples of Raffaello, and their usual method was to study diligently both Raffaello and the ancient marbles; and from the imitation of him, and more particularly of the antique, resulted, if I err not, the general character, if I may so express it, of the Roman School: the young artists who were expert in copying statues and bassirelievi, and who had those objects always before their eyes, could easily transfer their forms to the panel or the canvas.
— from The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. 2 (of 6) From the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the Eighteenth Century by Luigi Lanzi

Posterity is not compelled to keep our pictures or our books in existence, nor to read nor to look at them; but it is more or less obliged to have a stone building in view for an age or two.
— from Ceres' Runaway, and Other Essays by Alice Meynell

But they must be made to work at trades which come less into competition with free labour and it is especially necessary to give prisoners wages equal to those of free labourers, on condition that they pay the State for their food, clothes, and lodging, whilst the remainder goes to indemnify their victims.
— from Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri

In order to accomplish this preparatory step, I conceived it essentially necessary to watch very minutely the quarter-master and sentinel, who were pacing it slowly on the starboard side.
— from The captivity, sufferings, and escape of James Scurry Who was detained a prisoner during ten years, in the dominions of Hyder Ali and Tippoo Saib by James Scurry

"But men who are not noble let their lands in Europe; nay, the very serfs, as they become free and obtain riches, buy lands and let them, in some parts of the old world, as I have heard and read."
— from The Chainbearer; Or, The Littlepage Manuscripts by James Fenimore Cooper

During the two years after its enactment, notwithstanding the large number of divorces, only three persons were sent to prison, for a few days, under this Act, and only four fined a small sum.
— from The Task of Social Hygiene by Havelock Ellis

"I expect neither thanks nor protests.
— from Aunt Jane's Nieces by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

The structure continued multiplying itself until all the heavens were full of it, extending nearly to the horizon all around.
— from Rattlin the Reefer by Edward Howard