Those Parthian governors also, who were sent that way, paid him great respect; and the honor that was paid him by the Babylonians seemed to them too small, and beneath his deserts, although he were in no small dignity and power there; nay, indeed, all the affairs of Mesopotamia depended upon him, and he more and more flourished in this happy condition of his for fifteen years.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

In 1554, by the 1st and 2nd of Philip and Mary, and in 1558, by the 1st of Elizabeth, the exportation of wheat was in the same manner prohibited, whenever the price of the quarter should exceed six shillings and eightpence, which did not then contain two penny worth more silver than the same nominal sum does at present.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

I was told, during the civil disorders of our poor kingdom, that a maid, hard by the place where I then was, had thrown herself out of a window to avoid being forced by a common soldier who was quartered in the house; she was not killed by the fall, and therefore, repeating her attempt would have cut her own throat, had she not been prevented; but having, nevertheless, wounded herself to some show of danger, she voluntarily confessed that the soldier had not as yet importuned her otherwise; than by courtship, earnest solicitation, and presents; but that she was afraid that in the end he would have proceeded to violence, all which she delivered with such a countenance and accent, and withal embrued in her own blood, the highest testimony of her virtue, that she appeared another Lucretia; and yet I have since been very well assured that both before and after she was not so difficult a piece.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

But no sooner did Adam put his ruler in his pocket, and begin to twist his apron round his waist, than Gyp ran forward and looked up in his master's face with patient expectation.
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot

But thou desirest a more popular, and though not so direct and philosophical, yet a very powerful and penetrative recipe against the fear of death, nothing can make they more willing to part with thy life, than if thou shalt consider, both what the subjects themselves are that thou shalt part with, and what manner of disposition thou shalt no more have to do with.
— from Meditations by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius

But in 1562, the year at which he ends with it, it contained no more than the same nominal sum does at present.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

In 1562, therefore, by the 5th of Elizabeth, the exportation of wheat was allowed from certain ports, whenever the price of the quarter should not exceed ten shillings, containing nearly the same quantity of silver as the like nominal sum does at present.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

This overture was rejected on other grounds than the price; yet, notwithstanding so decided a proof of barbarism, the Loggunese were found to be a people more advanced in the arts of peace than any hitherto seen in Africa.
— from Travels of Richard and John Lander into the interior of Africa, for the discovery of the course and termination of the Niger From unpublished documents in the possession of the late Capt. John William Barber Fullerton ... with a prefatory analysis of the previous travels of Park, Denham, Clapperton, Adams, Lyon, Ritchie, &c. into the hitherto unexplored countries of Africa by Robert Huish

[45] No sooner does a poor sinner open his lips in prayer to Jesus, but the devil will bark at him, and by all means try to terrify and discourage him.
— from Works of John Bunyan — Volume 03 by John Bunyan

Through individual Russians one could always see with ease, for their diplomacy never suggested depth; and perhaps Hay protected Cassini for the very reason that Cassini could not disguise an emotion, and never failed to betray that, in setting the enormous bulk of Russian inertia to roll over China, he regretted infinitely that he should have to roll it over Hay too.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

This individual was cool and collected: though incapacitated by a sore right-thumb from using the spear, he did not shun danger, and passed unhurt through the midst of the enemy: his efforts, however, only illustrated the venerable adage, "defend me from my friends."
— from First Footsteps in East Africa by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir

Believe me, there is nothing so degrading as poverty.
— from An Anarchist Woman by Hutchins Hapgood

It did not occur to her to ask whether or not she deserved any punishment for the share she confessed to having borne in the treachery.
— from Fairy Gold by Christian Reid

Nam si Deus (aiunt) permisisset Iesum, innocentem, et iustum ita miserabiliter occidi, censuram suæ summæ iustitiæ minuisset.
— from The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 08 Asia, Part I by Richard Hakluyt

Lennox promoted Catholicism, which was not so difficult, as part of the nobility still adhered to it, at least in secret; he too lived and moved in comprehensive plans for the re-establishment of the Church.
— from A History of England Principally in the Seventeenth Century, Volume I (of 6) by Leopold von Ranke