In Sicily, the struggle centred about Syracuse.
— from The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

Gulnara, this evening when sank the red sun, Didst thou mark how like blood in descending it shone? THE SISTER. Mercy!
— from Poems by Victor Hugo

In Styria they say that by gathering fern-seed on Christmas night you can force the devil to bring you a bag of money.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

H2 anchor Twenty Years Down on the ancient wharf, the sand, I sit, with a new-comer chatting: He shipp'd as green-hand boy, and sail'd away, (took some sudden, vehement notion;) Since, twenty years and more have circled round and round, While he the globe was circling round and round, —and now returns: How changed the place—all the old land-marks gone—the parents dead; (Yes, he comes back to lay in port for good—to settle—has a well-fill'd purse—no spot will do but this;) The little boat that scull'd him from the sloop, now held in leash I see, I hear the slapping waves, the restless keel, the rocking in the sand, I see the sailor kit, the canvas bag, the great box bound with brass, I scan the face all berry-brown and bearded—the stout-strong frame, Dress'd in its russet suit of good Scotch cloth: (Then what the told-out story of those twenty years?
— from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Again, if the town is on the coast with a southern or western exposure, it will not be healthy, because in summer the southern sky grows hot at sunrise and is fiery at noon, while a western exposure grows warm after sunrise, is hot at noon, and at evening all aglow.
— from The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio

"Last year, I stole the standardized tests and published them on the net.
— from Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Her mind is so constituted that she is in a state of feverish unrest while conscious that there is something that she does not comprehend.
— from The Story of My Life With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy by Helen Keller

Ten years later I saw the same reserve consisting of fifteen thousand or twenty thousand horses,—so much had ideas and means changed.
— from The Art of War by Jomini, Antoine Henri, baron de

Agatha kept on telling me that everybody knew that the Corticelli was my mistress, and that for all the gold in the world she would not have it said that she was my last shift, as I could not see the Corticelli in private.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Charles Tyrrell instantly saw that she did not recollect in the least having seen him on the preceding night; but she saw that he knew who she was and that he seemed very well pleased to see her; and she therefore gathered from that circumstance that he was Sir Francis Tyrrell's son, though there was certainly four years difference between his real age and that which she had fancied it to be, and at least six in appearance.
— from Charles Tyrrell; or, The Bitter Blood. Volumes I and II by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

So you see whenever I sing that song it always brings back to my mind this painful story."
— from Her Benny: A Story of Street Life by Silas K. (Silas Kitto) Hocking

"That's short enough, I should think," said Jessie ungratefully.
— from Half a Dozen Girls by Anna Chapin Ray

[Pg 106] Lynn has made the interesting suggestion that some of the letters are hidden by the buildings in front and that the real sentence is “ isti mirantur stellam .”
— from Astronomical Curiosities: Facts and Fallacies by J. Ellard (John Ellard) Gore

fair Ines, She went away with song, With Music waiting on her steps, And shoutings of the throng; But some were sad, and felt no mirth, But only Music's wrong, In sounds that sang Farewell, farewell, To her you've loved so long.
— from The Home Book of Verse — Volume 2 by Burton Egbert Stevenson

'Tis true, indeed, I saw thy signature, What thou hast sanctioned, should not, it might seem, Have come amiss to me. But—'tis my nature— Thou know'st
— from The Piccolomini: A Play by Friedrich Schiller