Thus, when a quarrel arose between the man who was steering and his friend in the cabin, upon the question who had first suggested the propriety of offering Nell some beer, and when the quarrel led to a scuffle in which they beat each other fearfully, to her inexpressible terror, neither visited his displeasure upon her, but each contented himself with venting it on his adversary, on whom, in addition to blows, he bestowed a variety of compliments, which, happily for the child, were conveyed in terms, to her quite unintelligible.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

But Polycleitus says, that the Euphrates does not overflow its banks, because its course is through large plains; that of the mountains (from which it is supplied), some are distant 2000, and the Cossæan mountains scarcely 1000 stadia, that they are not very high, nor covered with snow to a great depth, and therefore do not occasion the snow to melt in great masses, for the most elevated mountains are in the northern parts above Ecbatana; towards the south they are divided, spread out, and are much lower; the Tigris also receives the greater part of the water [which comes down from them], and thus overflows its banks.
— from The Geography of Strabo, Volume 3 (of 3) Literally Translated, with Notes by Strabo

On every night when the opera was given the young Englishman might be seen going to her camerino, and everyone wondered why he did not visit her at her own house, where he would be certain of a good welcome, for he was English, and therefore rich, young, and handsome.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

We rode along this hill, and saw where many openings had been begun, but these, proving of little or no value, had been abandoned.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

Bolghar seems to have been the northern limit of Arab travel, and was visited by the curious (by Ibn Batuta among others) in order to witness the phenomena of the short summer night, as tourists now visit Hammerfest to witness its entire absence.
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Rustichello of Pisa

It was ruddy and dark in its abstraction, not very human, it had a strong, intent brightness.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch heard it all with curiosity.
— from The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Beneath his ear the pointed arrow went; The soul came issuing at the narrow vent: His limbs, unnerved, drop useless on the ground, And everlasting darkness shades him round.
— from The Iliad by Homer

Li jam ne vivas, he no longer lives (he already is-not-alive) .
— from A Complete Grammar of Esperanto by Ivy Kellerman Reed

A large building, square and new, very high, seemed, as in the fable of the mountain and the mouse, to have given birth to a tiny little white house, which nestled near it.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

Our necessary villain hath proved faithful, 280
— from The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Vol 2 (of 2) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Old standards had fallen, new standards had been reared, new values had attached to crime, therefore they demanded that the business in hand go on.
— from The Winds of Chance by Rex Beach

It was no very hard matter to catch Alexis and fasten a lot of pieces of string around him, as nearly like a harness as the two little boys could manage.
— from Six Little Bunkers at Aunt Jo's by Laura Lee Hope

[312] For arms, they had as chief defence some `very long English guns, with rests if they wished to use them, which were not very heavy, and had a tolerable range.'
— from A Vanished Arcadia: Being Some Account of the Jesuits in Paraguay 1607-1767 by R. B. (Robert Bontine) Cunninghame Graham

The demands on the time of a public man are very heavy nowadays, very heavy indeed.
— from A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde

We differed for a time as to the best means of accomplishing that object, but there never was, at any moment, a shade of difference among us as to the great object itself; and now, Virginia having taken her position, as far as the power of this convention extends, we stand animated by one impulse, governed by one desire and one determination, and that is, that she shall be defended, and that no spot of her soil shall be polluted by the foot of an invader.
— from A Life of Gen. Robert E. Lee by John Esten Cooke

A devout Romanist, he would not violate his conscience by submitting to the act of supremacy which made Henry the head of the Church, and so he was tried for high treason, and executed on the 6th of July, 1535.
— from English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History Designed as a Manual of Instruction by Henry Coppée

It was not very high, but extended wide in a square, with a low arched doorway in front of us through which it might be possible to drive with care.
— from The Mystery of the Sea by Bram Stoker

[100] We had, last night, an old-fashioned northeast snow-storm, far worse than anything in the winter; and the drifts are now very high above the fences.
— from Familiar Letters The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, Volume 06 (of 20) by Henry David Thoreau