It is not business, extensive plans, or any of the excursive flights of ambition, that engross their attention; no, their thoughts are not employed in rearing such noble structures.
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects by Mary Wollstonecraft

There was no enormity which the Greek was not today to believe of them; the tyrant was the negation of government and law; his assassination was glorious; there was no crime, however unnatural, which might not with probability be attributed to him.
— from The Republic by Plato

He himself saw one nailed to the floor and her tongue cut with a razor.
— from Secret Societies And Subversive Movements by Nesta Helen Webster

And goodly on Criseyde she biheld, And seyde, `Ioves lat him never thryve, That dooth yow harm, and bringe him sone of lyve!
— from Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer

I argued, on the contrary, that those plebeians who discovered such eagerness to imitate the dress and equipage of their superiors, would likewise, in time, adopt their maxims and their manners, be polished by their conversation, and refined by their example; but when I appealed to Mr Quin, and asked if he did not think that such an unreserved mixture would improve the whole mass?
— from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. (Tobias) Smollett

Fourth is the river Borysthenes, which is both the largest of these after the Ister, and also in our opinion the most serviceable not only of the Scythian rivers but also of all the rivers of the world besides, excepting only the Nile of Egypt, for to this it is not possible to compare any other river: of the rest however the Borysthenes is the most serviceable, seeing that it provides both pastures which are the fairest and the richest for cattle, and fish which are better by far and more numerous than those of any other river, and also it is the sweetest water to drink, and flows with clear stream, though others beside it are turbid, and along its banks crops are produced better than elsewhere, while in parts where it is not sown, grass grows deeper.
— from The History of Herodotus — Volume 1 by Herodotus

The people of Nias think that, when a tree dies, its liberated spirit becomes a demon, which can kill a coco-nut palm by merely lighting on its branches, and can cause the death of all the children in a house by perching on one of the posts that support it.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

They were passed by more than a dozen sail, one of which came so nigh them that they could distinctly see the people on deck and on the rigging looking at them; but, to the inexpressible disappointment of the starving and freezing men, they stifled the dictates of compassion, hoisted sail, and cruelly abandoned them to their fate.”
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

At last Ancus, making an effort with all his forces, obtained a complete victory over them in a pitched battle, and having got a considerable booty, returned thence to Rome; many thousands of the Latins being then also admitted into the city, to whom, in order that the Aventine might be joined to the Palatium, a settlement was assigned near the temple of Murcia.
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy

It is probable there was not a soul in court, including the judge and Serjeant Siftem, but believed the evidence of the Reverend Mr. Wilberforce, even had they chosen to doubt that of Lawrence Omer; but the register negatively testified that there had been no marriage, and upon the register, in law, must rest the onus of proof.
— from Mildred Arkell: A Novel. Vol. 3 (of 3) by Wood, Henry, Mrs.

And if you smiled at some of their queer notions, the tear was in your eye the next minute at the blessed thought that they had friends who cared whether the immortal part of them slumbered or woke; who recognized and fanned into a flame even the smallest particle of mentality.
— from Folly as It Flies; Hit at by Fanny Fern by Fanny Fern

Yet apart from this the place has natural attractions, a village green, noble trees, Thorsgill within sight; and just beyond the green a mill of cheerful clatter.
— from A Month in Yorkshire by Walter White

Although it was decided that formal notification to the Governors of the states of the call for volunteers should not be made until the following Monday, the first step was taken immediately after the signing of the proclamation, by the issuance of orders to the organized militia of the District of Columbia.
— from Our War with Spain for Cuba's Freedom by Trumbull White

Now the turn again.
— from Banzai! by Parabellum by Ferdinand Heinrich Grautoff

"Yes; I was planning all sorts of ways to fix things, so we needn't take the money.
— from Two Boys and a Fortune; Or, The Tyler Will by Matthew White

It possesses in nearly all cases older attestation 299 : there is no sort of question as to the greater number of witnesses that bear evidence to its claims: nor to their variety: and hardly ever to the explicit proof of their continuousness; which indeed is also generally—nay, universally—implied owing to the nature of the case: their weight is certified upon strong grounds: and as a matter of fact, the context in nearly all instances testifies on their side.
— from The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels by John William Burgon

The grove is near the town of Bentonville, on the Mayfair River, which empties into Lake Chad, so I think there will be plenty of chance to go boating.
— from The Outdoor Girls in Florida; Or, Wintering in the Sunny South by Laura Lee Hope

“I do not need to tell you that the veto of a bill by a governor means, in most cases, its death.
— from The Landloper: The Romance of a Man on Foot by Holman Day