For if such inexpressible whirlpool of Babylonish confusions ( which our Era is ) cannot be stilled by man, but only by Time and men, a man may moderate its paroxysms, may balance and sway, and keep himself unswallowed on the top of it,—as several men and Kings in these days do.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

whom, as thou thyself sayest, thou broughtest [into the palace]; whom thou didst prefer before so many of thy sons; whom thou madest a king in thine own lifetime, and, by the vast magnitude of the other advantages thou bestowedst on me, thou madest me an object of envy.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus

Then there was nothing more for him to do but go with the crowd in the morning, and keep in the front row and look eager, and when he failed, go back home, and play with little Kotrina and the baby.
— from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

That, however, of which I am master and knower, is the BRAIN of the leech:—that is MY world!
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

I have got it by me while I write these words; and I copy it, as follows, for your benefit: “Thirdly, and lastly, I give and bequeath to my niece, Rachel Verinder, daughter and only child of my sister, Julia Verinder, widow—if her mother, the said Julia Verinder, shall be living on the said Rachel Verinder’s next Birthday after my death—the yellow Diamond belonging to me, and known in the East by the name of The Moonstone: subject to this condition, that her mother, the said Julia Verinder, shall be living at the time.
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

In the Year 1514, a certain unhappy Governour Landed on the firm Land or Continent, a most bloody Tyrant, destitute of all Mercy and Prudence, the Instrument of God's Wrath, with a Resolution to people these parts with Spaniards ; and although some Tyrants had touched here before him, and Cruelty hurried them into the other World by several wayes of Slaughter, yet they came no farther than to the Sea Coast, where they comitted podigious Thefts and Robberies, but this Person exceeded all that ever dwelt in other Islands, though execrable and profligate Villains: for he did not only ravage and depopulate the Sea-Coast, but buried the largest Regions and most ample Kingdoms in their own Ruins, sending Thousdands to Hell by his Butcheries.
— from A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies Or, a faithful NARRATIVE OF THE Horrid and Unexampled Massacres, Butcheries, and all manner of Cruelties, that Hell and Malice could invent, committed by the Popish Spanish Party on the inhabitants of West-India, TOGETHER With the Devastations of several Kingdoms in America by Fire and Sword, for the space of Forty and Two Years, from the time of its first Discovery by them. by Bartolomé de las Casas

Gregorius spoke thus: "We have many and fine men; and it is my advice, King Inge, that you do not go to the assault with us, for everything is preserved if you are safe.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

In the picture of "The Adoration of the [58] Magi and Kings," in the Queen's Collection, the solemnity is carried to the utmost extent, like the mysterious leaf of a sybil's book; the only light shed over the scene seems to descend from the lurid rays of the star that stood over the place of the nativity, and guided them to the spot.
— from Rembrandt and His Works Comprising a Short Account of His Life; with a Critical Examination into His Principles and Practice of Design, Light, Shade, and Colour. Illustrated by Examples from the Etchings of Rembrandt. by John Burnet

“Keep your gold,” replied Maria, “and know, in the first place, it is God who has conducted the doctor hither; in the second place—it is I.” Maria pronounced these last words with a light tinge of vanity.
— from La Gaviota: A Spanish novel by Fernán Caballero

In the Western Hemisphere he was, in the trade he followed, the nearest modern approach to the paid executioners of olden times in France who went, each of them, by the name of the city or province wherein he was stationed, to do torturing and maiming and killing in the gracious name of the king.
— from From Place to Place by Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb

It appears to me that, in the formation of our physical nature, wisdom has shown such parsimony, that notwithstanding constant compensations, decline must always keep in the ascendancy, so that freedom misuses the mechanism, and death is germinated in life as out of its seed.
— from Philosophical Letters of Friedrich Schiller by Friedrich Schiller

But old Ronald had sole command of the money, and kept it to himself.
— from The Fallen Leaves by Wilkie Collins

“Do you mean to tell me that a paper which advises people to murder and kill is too mild?”
— from Anarchy and Anarchists A History of the Red Terror and the Social Revolution in America and Europe; Communism, Socialism, and Nihilism in Doctrine and in Deed; The Chicago Haymarket Conspiracy and the Detection and Trial of the Conspirators by Michael J. Schaack

The eye of the experienced hunter detects this sign in a moment, and knows it to be the token of approaching danger.
— from Harper's Young People, March 23, 1880 An Illustrated Weekly by Various

He was not followed, the pursuit was slackening more and more, and, keeping in the shadows, he made his way to the missionaries in the western suburb.
— from A Woman In China by Mary Gaunt

A study of the coroner’s report in any country where mining is carried on supplies concrete evidence that a large number of men are killed in the mines from one cause and another.
— from Men and Things by Henry A. Atkinson

I have searched myself for many days; I have reviewed my former life and written it out here in a few words, that I may always keep it the more clearly before my eyes when new perplexities and troubles overwhelm me.
— from The Forest Schoolmaster by Peter Rosegger