Odin took up his night's lodging at the house of Suttung's brother, Baugi, who told him that he was sadly at a loss for labourers, his nine thralls having slain each other.
— from The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson; and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson by Snorri Sturluson

if your honour did but know how I rejoice to see—Blessed be his holy name, that made me the humble instrument—But as for the lucre of gain, I renounce it—I have done no more than my duty—No more than I would have done for the most worthless of my fellow-creatures—No more than I would have done for captain Lismahago, or Archy Macalpine, or any sinner upon earth—But for your worship, I would go through fire as well as water’—‘I do believe it, Humphry (said the ‘squire); but as you think it was your duty to save my life at the hazard of your own, I think it is mine to express the sense I have of your extraordinary fidelity and attachment—I insist upon your receiving this small token of my gratitude; but don’t imagine that I look upon this as an adequate recompence for the service you have done me—I have determined to settle thirty pounds a-year upon you for life; and I desire these gentlemen will bear witness to this my intention, of which I have a memorandum in my pocketbook.’
— from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. (Tobias) Smollett

Their women wear a bronze ring 150 upon each leg, and they have long hair on their heads, and when they catch their lice, each one bites her own in retaliation and then throws them away.
— from The History of Herodotus — Volume 1 by Herodotus

When things were thus, Moses was afraid that matters should grow worse, and called the people to a congregation, but then accused nobody by name, as unwilling to drive those into despair who, by lying concealed, might come to repentance; but he said that they did not do what was either worthy of themselves, or of their fathers, by preferring pleasure to God, and to the living according to his will; that it was fit they should change their courses while their affairs were still in a good state, and think that to be true fortitude which offers not violence to their laws, but that which resists their lusts.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

The little door out of which he had thrust his head was close to the inn larder; and there he stood, bowing with grotesque politeness; as much at his ease as if the door were that of his own house; blighting all the legs of mutton and cold roast fowls by his close companionship, and looking like the evil genius of the cellars come from underground upon some work of mischief.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

To look at the hard figure of the man, you could not believe that he had a wife and could weep over his child.
— from The Bet, and other stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Well, you have done your best, you virtuous ladies, and others of your way of thinking, to bend Man's mind wholly towards honorable love as the highest good, and to understand by honorable love romance and beauty and happiness in the possession of beautiful, refined, delicate, affectionate women.
— from Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy by Bernard Shaw

Let us look for a little at the Hero as Divinity, the oldest primary form of Heroism.
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

They heard, too, the pleasant mingled notes of a variety of instruments, flutes, drums, psalteries, pipes, tabors, and timbrels, and as they drew near they perceived that the trees of a leafy arcade that had been constructed at the entrance of the town were filled with lights unaffected by the wind, for the breeze at the time was so gentle that it had not power to stir the leaves on the trees.
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Something might be necessary, he observed, to excite the affections of the common people, who were sunk in languor and lethargy, and therefore he supposed that the new concomitants of methodism might probably produce so desirable an effect.
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson Abridged and edited, with an introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood by James Boswell

" I was terrified ," says he, "at the discovery of half a bushel, and often a whole bushel, of acorns in each of the holes inhabited by these little animals; they had collected these acorns for their winter provision.
— from Practical Education, Volume I by Richard Lovell Edgeworth

Salomon the sage A sermon he made, For to amenden maires And men that kepen lawes; And tolde hem this teme, That I telle thynke, Ignis devorabit tabernacula eorum qui libenter accipiunt munera, 1550 etc.
— from The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman, Volume 1 of 2 by William Langland

So, addressing Dagobert in a less abrupt tone, he said to him, though still much agitated: "You are right.
— from The Wandering Jew — Volume 10 by Eugène Sue

It gave him a queer, short-sighted yet uncanny look, as though he were trying to focus some apparition of the future.
— from Shadows of Flames: A Novel by Amélie Rives

At that time, the old telegraph office was shot into, and stones were thrown into it, and the only thing that prevented them from shooting everybody there, was simply because the street was so much lower, and they had to shoot up, and the balls struck in the ceiling.
— from Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877 Read in the Senate and House of Representatives May 23, 1878 by 1877 Pennsylvania. General Assembly. Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July

But there is a more cheerful mode of looking at the history of scholasticism.
— from Collected Essays, Volume V Science and Christian Tradition: Essays by Thomas Henry Huxley

JONES, about thirty years of age, has hollow cheeks, black circles round his eyes, and rusty clothes: He looks as though he might be unemployed, and enters in a hang-dog manner.]
— from The Works of John Galsworthy An Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of Galsworthy by John Galsworthy

It was as beautiful as a fairy palace, and seemed an abode in which the lord and lady of this fair domain might fitly dwell, and come forth each morning to enjoy as sweet a life as their happiest dreams of the past night could have depicted.
— from The Marble Faun; Or, The Romance of Monte Beni - Volume 1 by Nathaniel Hawthorne

A plain private or hired carriage drove up to the door, and, after ascertaining that the Brandons lived at the house, a business-like looking, elderly gentleman stepped out, paid every demand immediately, and ordered my best clothes on.
— from Rattlin the Reefer by Edward Howard