As a possession for either woman or man, a ready smile is more valuable in life than a ready wit; the latter may sometimes bring enemies, but the former always brings friends.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post

Naghaganas ang busay, The waterfall makes a rushing sound.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

4 Wingless now, ‘the old serpent’ once more, the monster’s shape has no adaptation to the moral and religious struggle which is to ensue.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

The timid and selfish policy of the court of Ravenna might recall the Palatine legions for the protection of Italy; the remains of the stationary troops might be unequal to the arduous task; and the Barbarian auxiliaries might prefer the unbounded license of spoil to the benefits of a moderate and regular stipend.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

How glad I prepare me thy nectar most precious, No soul shall usurp me a rite so delicious; On the ambient flame when the black charcoal burns, The gold of thy bean to rare ebony turns, I alone, 'gainst the cone, wrought with fierce iron teeth.
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

[for he would not be able to support himself, if the multitude at Rome should once be in want of food]; and because he was desirous to join the two legions that were at Alexandria to the other legions that were with him.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus

The Middle Age regarded skin color with mild curiosity; and even up into the eighteenth century we were hammering our national manikins into one, great, Universal Man, with fine frenzy which ignored color and race even more than birth.
— from Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois

Parsons, marchionesses, and maiden aunts received simultaneous enlightenment as to Christian truth, and discovered that slavery was not prohibited, but was even countenanced, in the Bible.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 100, February, 1866 A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics by Various

He was careful to have a large quantity of wheat, barley, millet, and rice, stored up in years of abundant harvest, so as to keep the price of grain at a uniform rate when the harvest failed.
— from Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 1. The Exploration of the World by Jules Verne

Some make a regular sweep across—others only rise to pop down again.
— from Astronomy for Young Australians by James Bonwick

The fashion in which he had been brought up came to possess for him a moral and religious significance.
— from Ellen Levis: A Novel by Elsie Singmaster

Ninian made a great show of selecting a table, changed once, called the waiter "my man" and rubbed soft hands on "What do you say?
— from Miss Lulu Bett by Zona Gale

They were a romantic race of ambulatory poets, military and religious subjects their favourite themes, yet bold and sati
— from Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 by Isaac Disraeli

O jackals of the sands, we men are ready—” “Silence—and lie down!”
— from The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, July, 1913 Vol. LXXXVI. New Series: Vol. LXIV. May to October, 1913 by Various

Nursery gardens spread fair and far about the town, with little white and trellis-covered cottages in their midst for the husbandmen—gardens that have neat furrows intersecting them for water-supply, and that make a rich show in market produce.
— from North Italian Folk: Sketches of Town and Country Life by Alice Vansittart Strettel Carr

The first night in Nina’s Hive passed without special incident; and next morning a regular scheme of life was definitely laid down.
— from Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space by Jules Verne