In 1843 Kleofas Halvorson Hansemoen immigrated with wife Kari (Onsgaard) and child Halvor, locating on section twelve in Newark Township, Rock County.
— from A History of Norwegian Immigration to the United States From the Earliest Beginning down to the Year 1848 by George T. (George Tobias) Flom

A king or a community holding a certain thing to be abnormal, evil, uses the general strength to crush it out; the strength is his tool, but the belief is his only sanction.
— from What's Wrong with the World by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

‘Tis perhaps some particular sense that gives cocks to understand what hour it is at midnight, and when it grows to be towards day, and that makes them crow accordingly; that teaches chickens, before they have any experience of the matter, to fear a sparrow-hawk, and not a goose or a peacock, though birds of a much larger size; that cautions them against the hostile quality the cat has against them, and makes them not to fear a dog; to arm themselves against the mewing, a kind of flattering voice, of the one, and not against the barking, a shrill and threatening voice, of the other; that teaches wasps, ants, and rats, to fall upon the best pear and the best cheese before they have tasted them, and inspires the stag, elephant, and serpent, with the knowledge of a certain herb proper for their cure.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Selim Eutemi, King of Algiers, courts his Friendship , ib. Makes himself King, and how , ib.
— from A General History of the Pyrates: from their first rise and settlement in the island of Providence, to the present time by Daniel Defoe

Everybody could be any kind of a Christian he wanted to; there was perfect freedom in that matter.
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

Indeed, if I had not known to whom it belonged, I might have thought it was the devil's money, and have been afraid to use it; but as you know otherwise, and came honestly by it, it would be an affront to fortune to part with it all again, at the very time when you want it most; you can hardly expect she should ever do you such another good turn; for fortuna nunquam perpetuo est bona .
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

Einar had not been in the strife against King Olaf, and congratulated himself upon it.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

With his keen insight into human nature and his consequent knowledge of American character, he foresaw the inevitable result of such an attitude on the part of England.
— from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

At instants of momentary wakefulness he mistook a bush for his associate sentinel; his head next sank upon his shoulder, which, in its turn, sought the support of the ground; and, finally, his whole person became relaxed and pliant, and the young man sank into a deep sleep, dreaming that he was a knight of ancient chivalry, holding his midnight vigils before the tent of a recaptured princess, whose favor he did not despair of gaining, by such a proof of devotion and watchfulness.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper

He began undermining the position of Taurion also, who had been placed in command of the Peloponnese by Antigonus, not indeed openly attacking him, but rather praising his character, and asserting that he was a proper person to be with the king on a campaign; his object being to get some one else appointed to conduct the government of the Peloponnese.
— from The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Polybius

A kind of anxiety clouded his frank gray eyes.
— from While Caroline Was Growing by Josephine Daskam Bacon

If the water gets a little low he is liable to have an explosion; if it gets a little too high he may knock out a cylinder head in his engine; the fire must be fed every few minutes; the grates cleaned.
— from Farm Engines and How to Run Them: The Young Engineer's Guide by James H. Stephenson

The Dutch captain had given the charge of these things to a brisk bold fellow, his mate, and he took the hints the captain gave him so well, that nothing could have been better; for, finding the men thus in a kind of a cabal, he takes four of his men with muskets on their shoulders, like the governor's men, and goes with them to the Englishmen's boat, and asks for their officer, the second mate, who, upon this, appears.
— from A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before by Daniel Defoe

"Why, he's lookin' 'round to see what kind of a chance he can find for launchin' the dory!
— from The Light Keepers: A Story of the United States Light-house Service by James Otis

He's stuck on the detective business as bad as you are on gettin' into the Department, an' this is the kind of a case he don't get a whack at very often.
— from An Amateur Fireman by James Otis

The man said, “Guess you’re a kind of a comic, hey?”
— from Roy Blakeley's Motor Caravan by Percy Keese Fitzhugh

There lay the murderer's weapon—a delicately fashioned short dress sword, with an ivory hilt, not the knife of a common highwayman.
— from Barbara Blomberg — Volume 05 by Georg Ebers

To the majority of criminals such a reflection would have been like a reprieve from death, but the brooding brow and leaden eye of this man told that there was no balm in Gilead for his tortured soul, and that wherever he went, and to the last breath of his life, he must carry with him, like an incurable, malignant cancer, the knowledge of a crime, horrifying beyond conception to his mind, and yet un repented of, because amply justified by the monstrous circumstance of his bride’s infidelity.
— from My Friend Pasquale, and Other Stories by James Selwin Tait