It was his idea that I was at a loose end, and that he would do me a good turn by offering me a clerkship in a drygoods store.”
— from The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle

Then Mnestheus to the head his arrow drove, With lifted eyes, and took his aim above, But made a glancing shot, and missed the dove; Yet miss’d so narrow, that he cut the cord Which fasten’d by the foot the flitting bird.
— from The Aeneid by Virgil

The enemy left eighty-one dead in the trenches, and suffered a total loss estimated at three hundred.
— from The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by James H. (James Henderson) Blount

As he went down to the river-hut He knew a night-shade scent, Owls did as evil cherubs rise, With little wings and lantern eyes, As though he sank through the under-skies;
— from The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

He quickly discharged an arrow, striking him in the left eye, and the horseman at once took to flight.
— from Myths and Legends of China by E. T. C. (Edward Theodore Chalmers) Werner

Glanced many a light caique along the foam, Danced on the shore the daughters of the land, No thought had man or maid of rest or home, While many a languid eye and thrilling hand Exchanged the look few bosoms may withstand, Or gently pressed, returned the pressure still: Oh Love!
— from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

Therefore at least admit us liberty, Even as thou hop'st to be eternized By living Asia's mighty emperor.
— from Tamburlaine the Great — Part 1 by Christopher Marlowe

These passions, so necessary to the conservation of man, are a consequence of his organization; they display themselves with more or less energy, according to his temperament; education and habit develope them; government gives them play, conducts them towards those objects, which it believes itself interested in making desirable to its subjects.
— from The System of Nature, or, the Laws of the Moral and Physical World. Volume 1 by Holbach, Paul Henri Thiry, baron d'

He needs no excuse for having approved the religion of his time, according as the laws enjoined, and to have been ignorant of the true; this was his misfortune, not his fault.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 16 by Michel de Montaigne

But, having grown hungry on the way, and being also, perhaps, excited by gluttony, he filled himself with the infected meat, and on his return to Wiskain, informed him that the earth was large enough, and that he need not, therefore, resume his work.
— from Flagg's The Far West, 1836-1837, part 2; and De Smet's Letters and Sketches, 1841-1842 by Pierre-Jean de Smet

It is possible of course to take any of these lines either with or without some further view: but in general men speak, and act, and live, each according to his particular character and disposition, unless indeed a man is acting from any special motive.
— from The Ethics of Aristotle by Aristotle

They had been told that she was reduced to the last extremities, and that her territory was occupied by an enemy; and yet, here they saw her, as if in prodigality of power, sending forth, to make foreign conquests, a second armament, not inferior to that with which Nicias had first landed on the Sicilian shores.
— from The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to Waterloo by Creasy, Edward Shepherd, Sir

But on the whole he was one of the people among whom he lived; in appearance perhaps even a little more uncouth than most of them,—a very tall, rawboned youth, with large features, dark, shrivelled skin, and rebellious hair; his arms and legs long, out of proportion; clad in deerskin trousers, which from frequent exposure to the rain had shrunk so as to sit tightly on his limbs, leaving several inches of bluish shin exposed between their lower end and the heavy tan-colored shoes; the nether garment held usually by only one suspender, that was strung over a coarse homemade shirt; the head covered in winter with a coonskin cap, in summer with a rough straw hat of uncertain shape, without a band.
— from The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Complete by Abraham Lincoln

In thus opening his mind to his friends, he soon found a willing accord in each of their hearts, and they put their heads together to count up the cost and to fix a time for leaving Egypt and the host of Pharaoh to do their own "hewing of wood and drawing of water."
— from The Underground Railroad A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, &c., Narrating the Hardships, Hair-Breadth Escapes and Death Struggles of the Slaves in Their Efforts for Freedom, As Related by Themselves and Others, or Witnessed by the Author. by William Still

The young ladies are both about to marry well, and with fortunes very fairly proportioned to those of their respective husbands, and any family coolness with such near relations as Lady Eastcombe and the honourable Mrs. Nivett would be both disadvantageous and disagreeable."
— from The Widow Barnaby. Vol. 3 (of 3) by Frances Milton Trollope

They were looking eagerly at the house and gesticulating.
— from Through Welsh Doorways by Jeannette Augustus Marks

Lady Elizabeth answered that her hour varied from five to nine, as it suited her son's convenience.
— from The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Volume 2 by Maria Edgeworth