I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon perceived that it did not move; so I presently concluded that it was a ship at anchor; and being eager, you may be sure, to be satisfied, I took my gun in my hand, and ran towards the south side of the island to the rocks where I had formerly been carried away by the current; and getting up there, the weather by this time being perfectly clear, I could plainly see, to my great sorrow, the wreck of a ship, cast away in the night upon those concealed rocks which I found when I was out in my boat; and which rocks, as they checked the violence of the stream, and made a kind of counter-stream, or eddy, were the occasion of my recovering from the most desperate, hopeless condition that ever I had been in in all my life.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Partly in consequence of acts of this kind, and partly in terror at the furious raids which the Castilians made throughout the country, even as far as the port of Cadiz, the Moslem States were almost all tributaries of the King of Castile, who took care to annually demand heavier and more heavy tribute, as the price of his friendship, in order to lay up stores for the great conquest which he had in mind.
— from The Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole

The children whom he had by her would inherit their mother’s name, not his; the daughters would remain at home; the sons, when they grew up, would go away into the world, marry, and settle in their wives’ country, whether as kings or commoners.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

The family sprang either from Bacchius, a son of Dionysus , or Bacchus, or from the fifth king of Corinth, who was named Bacchis.
— from The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII by Ovid

We have the power of making ourselves adored, but we lack one tiny thing, the understanding of the various kinds of caresses.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

And alway Sir Kay cried: Sir knight of Cornwall, joust with me, or else yield thee to me as recreant.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir

It is needful to guard against the grave error of supposing that because perception arises through the knowledge of causality, the relation of subject and object is that of cause and effect.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer

In cards I do not know one card from another.
— from Up from Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington

“He said not to mention it; but he wouldn't mind your knowing, of course.
— from Pollyanna by Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter

And nobody you knew of could take pictures except Jimmy Rhodes and Rocco and of course you, with your Polaroid?
— from Warren Commission (13 of 26): Hearings Vol. XIII (of 15) by United States. Warren Commission

They raised three kinds of corn: a sweet corn for roasting ears, a hard variety for hominy and a softer for meal.
— from Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 7 by Charles Herbert Sylvester

In Persia the Aryans acquired, for the first time, a kind of collective freedom, but not yet an individual consciousness as free agents.
— from A Manual of the Historical Development of Art Pre-Historic—Ancient—Classic—Early Christian; with Special Reference to Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, and Ornamentation by G. G. (Gustavus George) Zerffi

We got him a kind of coffin made, in which he was conveyed at midnight to the outskirts of the town, there to be put into one of the pits which the galley-slaves had dug during the day for the reception of the dead.
— from Wanderings in South America by Charles Waterton

He plunged into it more frankly: "You know, of course, that to become a sculptor or a painter, one has to model and paint from living people."
— from The Adventures of a Modest Man by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers

They've been killed off like pigs up there, in that town, and they keep on comin'.
— from With Cavalry in 1915 The British Trooper in the Trench Line, Through the Second Battle of Ypres by Frederic Coleman

Very little philosophy is taught, { 277} only three hours a week are given for Chinese learning, and the students are expected to acquire a sufficient knowledge of Chinese subjects before they come to the University.
— from Changing China by Cecil, Florence Mary (Bootle-Wilbraham), Lady

Perhaps it's as well … There used to be talk—as though this stuff would revolutionise everything … But there is something that defies all these forces of the New … I don't know of course.
— from The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

“Privy Seal 28 July 1509 for Robert Brikenden to be Keeper or Clerk of the King’s Ships in the Realm of England, with 12 d. a day for himself, [280] and 6 d. a day for his Clerk, in the same manner as William Comersale,—out of the customs of Exeter and Dartmouth.”
— from Samuel Pepys and the World He Lived In by Henry B. (Henry Benjamin) Wheatley