For, not to mention the arts of luxury and debauchery, we plainly see how far the business of exquisite poisons, guns, engines of war, and such kind of destructive inventions, exceeds the cruelty and barbarity of the Minotaur himself.
— from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon

In some of the earlier hymns of the Rig-Veda, the Maruts, the storm-deities, are praised along with Indra, the sun; Yama, king of Death, is equally adored with the goddess of Dawn.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

Generally then, whatsoever it be, besides virtue, and those things that proceed from virtue that thou art subject to be much affected with, remember presently thus to divide it, and by this kind of division, in each particular to attain unto the contempt of the whole.
— from Meditations by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius

But the task, however trying to my nerves, must be got over; at last, in a kind of desperation, I entered upon it.
— from Lavengro: The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest by George Borrow

Parquet floors are delightful, but in most places linoleum must be the floor covering because it keeps out draughts, is easily kept clean, and is comparatively cheap.
— from The Labour-saving House by Peel, C. S., Mrs.

With regard to the nature of his authority, he was instructed to claim a kind of dictatorship in everything regarding the command of the forces, and the distribution of the public treasure.
— from History of the United Netherlands, 1587b by John Lothrop Motley

Since I wrote you about the town we've seen quite a lot of things but I've been kind of disappointed in 'em.
— from Harper's Round Table, March 31, 1896 by Various

After passing through one or two hands he was purchased by Mr. Harry Jones, and in his kennel speedily made a great name in the show ring and at the stud, and was eventually sold for a high price to Mr. Sidney Woodiwiss, who at that period had the largest kennel of Dachshunds in England.
— from Dogs and All about Them by Robert Leighton

She added that the time had been when she and her friends would have extended the hand of welcome to a stranger in Poland; that, when a child, she had heard her father and brothers talk of liberty and the pressure of a foreign yoke, but, living in affluence, surrounded by friends and connexions, she could not sympathize with them, and thought it a feeling existing only in men, which women could not know; but actual occurrences had opened her eyes; her family had been crushed to the earth, her friends imprisoned, killed, or driven into exile, and yet, she added, turning to her husband and father, she ought not to mourn, for those dearest to her on earth were spared.
— from Incidents of Travel in Greece, Turkey, Russia, and Poland, Vol. 2 (of 2) by John L. Stephens

I found nobody in the little shop, but a rough voice, as like as possible to Jacobs' own, was chanting the sea-song of 'Come, cheer up, my lads, 'tis to glory we steer,' in the back-room, in a curious sleepy kind of drone, interrupted every now and then by the suck of his pipe, and a mysterious thumping sound, which I could only account for by the supposition that the poor fellow was mangling clothes, or gone mad.
— from The Green Hand: Adventures of a Naval Lieutenant by George Cupples

Surely it would be the means of forwarding the knowledge of drugs, if each could be distinguished by one general term.
— from The Botanist's Companion, Volume II Or an Introduction to the Knowledge of Practical Botany, and the Uses of Plants. Either Growing Wild in Great Britain, or Cultivated for the Puroses of Agriculture, Medicine, Rural Oeconomy, or the Arts by William Salisbury