The most dreadful instance of barbarity under the Saxon government, was the massacre of the monks of Bangor, A. D. 586.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

Didn’t she say before they had sat down five minutes that Barbara’s mother was exactly the sort of lady she expected, and didn’t Barbara’s mother say that Kit’s mother was the very picture of what she had expected, and didn’t Kit’s mother compliment Barbara’s mother on Barbara, and didn’t Barbara’s mother compliment Kit’s mother on Kit, and wasn’t Barbara herself quite fascinated with little Jacob, and did ever a child show off when he was wanted, as that child did, or make such friends as he made!
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Shall I speak of the manifold and various loveliness of sky, and earth, and sea; of the plentiful supply and wonderful qualities of the light; of sun, moon, and stars; of the shade of trees; of the colours and perfume of flowers; of the multitude of birds, all differing in plumage and in song; of the variety of animals, of which the smallest in size are often the most wonderful,—the works of ants and bees astonishing us more than the huge bodies of whales?
— from The City of God, Volume II by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

With a powerful body of retainers always at his command, it is surprising we have not more frequently our ‘mayors of Burgundy and Dagoberts,’
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 or the Central and Western Rajput States of India by James Tod

Nerved by an active resolution, Adam took a morsel of bread and drank some wine.
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot

If I want to enjoy myself that way, I should prefer to go in my carriage, sit in my own box, and do the thing comfortably.
— from Father Goriot by Honoré de Balzac

The Scandalous Scene Miüsov, as a man of breeding and delicacy, could not but feel some inward qualms, when he reached the Father Superior's with Ivan: he felt ashamed of having lost his temper.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

For, conversely, character and thought are merely obscured by a diction that is over brilliant.
— from The Poetics of Aristotle by Aristotle

In North Carolina Breckinridge's majority over Bell and Douglas was only 849 votes.
— from History of the United States by Mary Ritter Beard

The distinctive features of [244] the American system are its guarantees of personal independence and individual freedom; that is, as far as possible, it guarantees to each man his right to live as he chooses and to regulate his own private affairs as he wishes, without being interfered with or tyrannized over by an individual, or by an oligarchic minority, or by a democratic majority; while, when the interests of the whole community are at stake, it is found best in the long run to let them be managed in accordance with the wishes of the majority of those presumably concerned.
— from Thomas Hart Benton by Theodore Roosevelt

3. Then followed immediately the message to God's people to "flee out [pg 275] of the midst of Babylon and deliver every man his soul," warning them that no one could any longer bear the mark of the beast or worship his image without forfeiting eternal salvation and that the fearful judgments of heaven would soon descend upon every one who refused to obey the message and to walk in the light.
— from The Revelation Explained An Exposition, Text by Text, of the Apocalypse of St. John by F. G. (Frederick George) Smith

Try whether his ambition or his avarice have justled him out of the straight line of duty,—or whether that grand foe of the offices of active life, that master vice in men of business, a degenerate and inglorious sloth, has made him flag and languish in his course.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 02 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

But it may only be a doughnut and a glass of milk.
— from Miss Maitland, Private Secretary by Geraldine Bonner

The canyon was a mass of blood, and death was abroad in the valley.
— from The Sheep Eaters by William Alonzo Allen

‘There were also ambassadors from the kings of France, England, Jerusalem, Sicily, Cyprus, and Poland; from the dukes of Brabant, Austria, Stephen of Bavaria, William of Bavaria; from the counts of Cleves and of Brandac 28 ; from the marquis of Brandenbourg and de Moraine 29 ; from the archbishops of Cologne, Mentz and Saltzbourg, and from the bishop of Maestricht; from the grand master of the Teutonic order; from the patriarch of Aquileia, and from many princes in Italy.
— from The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Vol. 02 [of 13] Containing an account of the cruel civil wars between the houses of Orleans and Burgundy, of the possession of Paris and Normandy by the English, their expulsion thence, and of other memorable events that happened in the kingdom of France, as well as in other countries by Enguerrand de Monstrelet

We owe much of our tenderest poesy to the heroines whose charms have attuned the fancy and aroused the impassioned muse of enamoured bards; readers have always exhibited a natural avidity to realize the personality of the beings who inspired the tender lays,—prompted often by mere curiosity, but more often by a desire to appreciate the tastes and motives of the poets themselves.
— from A Literary Pilgrimage Among the Haunts of Famous British Authors by Theodore F. (Theodore Frelinghuysen) Wolfe

In that community where the people, marked off by any distinction in race or appearance—where persons born in serfdom, or of a particular line, or speaking a peculiar language—are doomed to slavery, the laws may be unjust and barbarous in the extreme, but it does not follow that they are feeble.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 63, No. 391, May, 1848 by Various