The blunders mentioned are intelligible enough as in a version from the French ; but in the description of the Indian pearl-fishery we have a startling one not so easy to account for.
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Rustichello of Pisa

He would have been a prize, and one not so easy to replace,—freshly emerged, too, from the Duke's Clementi Conservatorio.
— from The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Volume 01 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

But still, in a busy life, and in one mainly occupied with military matters, such as that of Neoptolemus was at that time, even that limited degree of acquaintance with philosophy may be of great use, and may yield fruit, not perhaps so plentiful as a thorough knowledge of the whole of philosophy, but yet such as in some degree may at times deliver us from the dominion of our desires, our sorrows, and our fears; just as the effect of that discussion which we lately maintained in my Tusculan villa seemed to be that a great contempt of death was engendered, which contempt is of no small efficacy towards delivering the mind from fear; for whoever dreads what cannot be avoided can by no means live with a quiet and tranquil mind.
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth by Marcus Tullius Cicero

for that I have purposely during my life not remained quiet, but neglecting what most men seek after, money-making, domestic concerns, military command, popular oratory, and, moreover, all the magistracies, conspiracies, and cabals that are met with in the city, thinking that I was in reality too upright a man to be safe if I took part in such things, I therefore did not apply myself to those pursuits, by attending to which I should have been of no service either to you or to myself; but in order to confer the greatest benefit on each of you privately, as I affirm, I thereupon applied myself to that object, endeavoring to persuade every one of you not to take any care of his own affairs before he had taken care of himself in what way he may become the best and wisest, nor of the affairs of the city before he took care of the city itself; and that he should attend to other things in the same manner.
— from Apology, Crito, and Phaedo of Socrates by Plato

I saw the fort that Clive built; and the place where Warren Hastings and the author of the Junius Letters fought their duel; and the great botanical gardens; and the fashionable afternoon turnout in the Maidan; and a grand review of the garrison in a great plain at sunrise; and a military tournament in which great bodies of native soldiery exhibited the perfection of their drill at all arms, a spectacular and beautiful show occupying several nights and closing with the mimic storming of a native fort which was as good as the reality for thrilling and accurate detail, and better than the reality for security and comfort; we had a pleasure excursion on the ‘Hoogly’ by courtesy of friends, and devoted the rest of the time to social life and the Indian museum.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

At the dead of night, she escaped to the sanctuary of St. Sophia; but her tears, and the gold of her associate Germanus, were insufficient to provoke an insurrection.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

For, although it does not make their mode of origination any more comprehensible, yet it is a heuristic principle for investigating the particular laws of nature; supposing even that we wish to make no use of it for explaining nature itself,—in which we still always speak only of natural purposes, although it apparently exhibits a designed unity of purpose,— i.e. without seeking beyond nature the ground of the possibility of these particular laws.
— from Kant's Critique of Judgement by Immanuel Kant

because we never meant when we constructed the State, that the opposition of natures should extend to every difference, but only to those D differences which affected the pursuit in which the individual is engaged; we should have argued, for example, that a physician and one who is in mind a physician 5 may be said to have the same nature.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

"I broke up the Diet in Orsha, not somewhere else; that was a home affair.
— from The Deluge: An Historical Novel of Poland, Sweden, and Russia. Vol. 1 (of 2) by Henryk Sienkiewicz

"Oh, no," said Edward: "this is something too hard to eat: it belongs not to me, but to his Eminence.
— from Lord Montagu's Page: An Historical Romance by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

Mr. Hastings, unknown to the Council, having executed the orders of the Company in the last degree of rigor to this unhappy man, keeps him in that situation, without a trial, under a guard, separated from his country, disgraced and dishonored, and by Mr. Hastings's express order not suffered either to make a visit or receive a visitor.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 10 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

He employed also another expedient (though it required great promptitude); he chose some persons, as stupid as they were rash, whom he sent to Illyricum, relying on no support except their own impudence; but also well furnished with pieces of gold stamped with the head of the new emperor, and with other means suited to win over the multitude.
— from The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus During the Reigns of the Emperors Constantius, Julian, Jovianus, Valentinian, and Valens by Ammianus Marcellinus

{196} Some day, of course, there may come into being a League of Nations so effective that nations can really look to it for their safety.
— from The Fruits of Victory A Sequel to The Great Illusion by Norman Angell

The reason whereof is this, That the several terms of a definition, signifying several ideas, they can all together by no means represent an idea which has no composition at all: and therefore a definition, which is properly nothing but the showing the meaning of one word by several others not signifying each the same thing, can in the names of simple ideas have no place.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 2 MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 3 and 4 by John Locke

"Oh, no," said Ellen, "that wouldn't be right that would be very wrong."
— from The Wide, Wide World by Susan Warner