I THE towers of Zenith aspired above the morning mist; austere towers of steel and cement and limestone, sturdy as cliffs and delicate as silver rods.
— from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

Still more remarkable are the corresponding portraits of individuals: there is the family picture of the father and mother and the old servant of the timocratical man, and the outward respectability and inherent meanness of the oligarchical; the uncontrolled licence and freedom of the democrat, in which the young Alcibiades seems to be depicted, doing right or wrong as he pleases, and who at last, like the prodigal, goes into a far country (note here the play of language by which the democratic man is himself represented under the image of a State having a citadel and receiving embassies); and there is the wild-beast nature, which breaks loose in his successor.
— from The Republic by Plato

The year afterwards, 1013, it is clear that the art had regained some of its vigour from the rebuilding of that most beautiful church, S. Miniato in Sul Monte, in the time of Messer Alibrando, citizen and Bishop of Florence; for the reason that, besides the marble ornaments that are seen therein both within and without, it may be seen from the façade that the Tuscan architects strove as much as they could in the doors, the windows, the columns, the arches, and the mouldings, to imitate the good order of the ancients, having in part recovered it from the most ancient temple of S. Giovanni in their city.
— from Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 01 (of 10) Cimabue to Agnolo Gaddi by Giorgio Vasari

Most delicately hour by hour He canvass'd human mysteries, And trod on silk, as if the winds Blew his own praises in his eyes, And stood aloof from other minds In impotence of fancied power.
— from The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson by Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron

Such revenge doth mine abundance think of: such mischief welleth out of my lonesomeness.
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

It is a wonder to read that strange suspicion, which Suetonius reports of Claudius Caesar, and of Domitian, they were afraid of every man they saw: and which Herodian of Antoninus and Geta, those two jealous brothers, the one could not endure so much as the other's servants, but made away him, his chiefest followers, and all that belonged to him, or were his well-wishers.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

He had been seen by the Salaminian and Paralian galleys, which happened to be sailing from Athens, while still at anchor off Clarus; and fearing pursuit he now made across the open sea, fully determined to touch nowhere, if he could help it, until he got to Peloponnese.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

They had amazingly high morale among their own select Bolshevik group, and against the common people they had two weapons, propaganda and terror.
— from Psychological Warfare by Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger

But I reckon Tennessee is goin' out, an' most all the other Southern states will go out, too.
— from The Guns of Bull Run: A Story of the Civil War's Eve by Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler

To this duty the Legislature added, after my arrival, those of secretary and treasurer, without increase of salary, discharging the former incumbent, a man, at three thousand dollars a year.
— from A Story of the Red Cross; Glimpses of Field Work by Clara Barton

Yet strange it is to behold the infinite wanderings and errors of men, on the one hand or the other:—some presuming upon the news of mercy, and the sound of God's grace, to walk after the imagination of their own hearts, and to live and continue in sin, for which Christ died, that he might redeem us from it, fancying a possibility of living in sin, and escaping wrath, and so abusing the tender of grace to promote licentiousness;—others, again, apprehending the wrath of God, and their just deservings, abusing the notion of God's justice, and the perfection of his holiness, to the prejudice of the glory of his grace and mercy, and their own salvation.
— from The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning by Hugh Binning

"Thank you, Ruggiero," said Beatrice, as the maid and the other sailor came up.
— from The Children of the King: A Tale of Southern Italy by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford

But only slipping further into the whale's mouth, and tilting over sideways as it slipped, the boat had shaken off his hold on the jaw; spilled him out of it, as he leaned to the push; and so he fell flat-faced upon the sea.
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville

When one lady is married, and the other single, present the single lady to the matron—"Miss Harris, allow me to introduce you to Mrs. Martin."
— from Martine's Hand-book of Etiquette, and Guide to True Politeness by Arthur Martine

Their raiment was scanty and soiled; their frames and countenances alike bespoke fatigue and hardship; but while the elder one moved with moderate alacrity, the other shuffled painfully along by the help of a staff, shrinking every time that he placed either of his feet on the ground.
— from The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales by Richard Garnett

But where robbery has disguised itself as Law , and one class has aimed the law-making machine at the others, saying " Stand and deliver!
— from The Inevitable Crimes of Celibacy The Vices of Convents and Monasteries, Priests and Nuns by Thomas E. (Thomas Edward) Watson