A quantity of gunpowder having been placed under his arms was first set on fire which scorched his left hand and one side of his face, but did no material injury, neither did it communicate with the fagots.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

Then the ignorance of what is and is not dangerous is cowardice?
— from Protagoras by Plato

There is, no doubt, in counties and in the smaller boroughs, a large amount of servile dependence still remaining; but the temper of the times is adverse to it, and the force of events is constantly tending to diminish it.
— from Considerations on Representative Government by John Stuart Mill

There is no difficulty in conceiving the intention of the Roman princes to improve their revenue by some restraints upon commerce; but as Nisibis was situated within their own dominions, and as they were masters both of the imports and exports, it should seem that such restraints were the objects of an internal law, rather than of a foreign treaty.
— 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

This is not difficult in cities where new plays come to town every week, but in New York, where the same ones run for a year or more, it is often a choice between an old good one or a new one that is poor.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post

Union, organization spiritual and material, a far nobler than any Popedom or Feudalism in their truest days, I never doubt, is coming for the world; sure to come.
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

From something suddenly suggested by the man's air, the mad idea now darted into Captain Delano's mind, that Don Benito's plea of indisposition, in withdrawing below, was but a pretense: that he was engaged there maturing his plot, of which the sailor, by some means gaining an inkling, had a mind to warn [pg 180] the stranger against; incited, it may be, by gratitude for a kind word on first boarding the ship.
— from The Piazza Tales by Herman Melville

Though then in our time, be not suffered That testimonie of love, unto the dead, To die with them, and in their graves be hid, 250 As Saxon wives, and French soldurii did; And though in no degree I can expresse Griefe in great Alexanders great excesse, Who at his friends death, made whole townes devest Their walls and bullwarks which became them best: 255 Doe not, faire soule, this sacrifice refuse, That in thy grave I doe interre my Muse, Who, by my griefe, great as thy worth, being cast Behind hand, yet hath spoke, and spoke her last.
— from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts by John Donne

Now if what I have been describing is not the dysentery, why I must think I never had a case of it; but I shall still persist in guessing it to be the same, and suppose that inattention with many must be the reason that it is not discovered in cold weather, at the time that it takes place.
— from Mysteries of Bee-keeping Explained by M. (Moses) Quinby

Major Winchester had not to wait for it, nor did it come in any way such as could have been predicted.
— from Imogen; Or, Only Eighteen by Mrs. Molesworth

Quatuor milia Catholicorum virorum (ut de infinita multitudine religiosorum, foeminarum, puerorum, puellarum et infantium nihil dicam) in civitate gladius impiorum rebellium illa expugnatione devoravit."—Propugnaculum
— from The History of England from the First Invasion by the Romans to the Accession of King George the Fifth Volume 8 by Hilaire Belloc

It seems right to disregard the temperature recorded for the attached thermometer, and to use the air temperature, of which there is no doubt, in correcting the barometric reading.
— from The Ascent of Denali (Mount McKinley) A Narrative of the First Complete Ascent of the Highest Peak in North America by Hudson Stuck

The members of the tribe are not organically at warfare with each other; society is not divided into classes which prey upon each other; nor is it consumed by parasites.
— from Civilisation: Its Cause and Cure; and Other Essays by Edward Carpenter

Objection 1: It would seem that there is no delight in contemplation.
— from Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province by Thomas, Aquinas, Saint

While aware of the need to improve the investment climate, the government still sponsors measures that often increase, not decrease, its control over business decisions.
— from The 2009 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency

It is not durable in contact with the soil.
— from American Forest Trees by Henry H. Gibson

These are merits of the greatest importance in favour of the whitethorn, which will ever make this the best hedge-row plant, as if we succeed to a whitethorn fence, which has been trimmed and kept within due bounds, there is no difficulty in continuing the process; and so if the hedge be left to grow tall and wild it may be cut out either wholly or partially, some stems cut half through—as in the process of plashing —laid down, and so a secure though not so tall a fence be formed, that will only grow thicker year by year.
— from Science and Practice in Farm Cultivation by James Buckman

But I have come to the conviction, that for freedom there is no duration in CENTRALIZATION, which is a legacy of ambitious men.
— from Select Speeches of Kossuth by Lajos Kossuth