And so, forsooth, you set up for a gentleman, and pretend to find fault with a sirloin of roast beef.”
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

The roof that was over the house was of cedar; and truly every one of these rooms had a roof of their own, that was not connected with the other rooms; but for the other parts, there was a covered roof common to them all, and built with very long beams, that passed through the rest, and through the whole building, that so the middle walls, being strengthened by the same beams of timber, might be thereby made firmer: but as for that part of the roof that was under the beams, it was made of the same materials, and was all made smooth, and had ornaments proper for roofs, and plates of gold nailed upon them.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

Bonaparte calls his first war council, and thinks for a moment of retreat, but Augereau insists on fighting, which is successfully accomplished while Wurmser is basking himself among the captured artillery outside Mantua.
— from Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812 For the First Time Collected and Translated, with Notes Social, Historical, and Chronological, from Contemporary Sources by Emperor of the French Napoleon I

The woman sits and sews as long as it is novel and amusing, but later, when she is bored, she begins to receive men secretly, or runs back to where she can sleep till three in the afternoon, drink coffee, and eat till she is full.
— from The Bet, and other stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

I made the general an appropriate compliment, to which the rude Austrian only replied by a cold inclination of the head.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

But if a person have yet greater riches, whether he has found them, or they have been given to him, or he has made them in business, or has acquired by any stroke of fortune that which is in excess of the measure, if he give back the surplus to the state, and to the Gods who are the patrons of the state, he shall suffer no penalty or loss of reputation; but if he disobeys this our law, any one who likes may inform against him and receive half the value of the excess, and the delinquent shall pay a sum equal to the excess out of his own property, and the other half of the excess shall belong to the Gods.
— from Laws by Plato

There are others of this group who still retain the genitals as their object, but not by virtue of their sexual function; they participate for anatomic reasons or rather by reason of their proximity.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud

Then the many are of another mind; they think that justice is to be reckoned in the troublesome class, among goods which are to be pursued for the sake of rewards and of reputation, but in themselves are disagreeable and rather to be avoided.
— from The Republic by Plato

She said she couldn’t talk about the difference very intelligently, not being familiar with other religions, but that theirs seemed simple enough.
— from Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Even Jack Crandall swung to the steps, and debated a moment whether he should not join the party of rescue, but his common sense told him he would be only a hindrance, and he reluctantly stayed behind and watched the shadowy forms of his friends as shown in the star gleam, the moon not yet having risen.
— from The Boy Patrol Around the Council Fire by Edward Sylvester Ellis

Probably it was the good work done by Cromwell's cavalry that marked the turning-point in the life of the old régime by driving out of the field not only the great horses that until then had been deemed wholly indispensable, but also by sounding the death-knell of armour that for two centuries had been growing steadily heavier and more ponderous.
— from The Horse in History by Basil Tozer

The truth, missed almost universally, was that the supreme wisdom, the paramount virility, is law-abiding honesty, the doing of right because right is right, in scorn of consequence.
— from Renaissance in Italy, Volume 1 (of 7) The Age of the Despots by John Addington Symonds

(After Osborn.) 133 That year, 1884, in which I explored the quarry at Long Island, was a memorable one, not only because we secured a large carload of rhinoceros bones, but also because we had with us Mr. J. B. Hatcher, who afterwards helped to build up three great museums of vertebrate paleontology,—the museums of Yale and Princeton and the Carnegie Museum.
— from The Life of a Fossil Hunter by Charles H. (Charles Hazelius) Sternberg

Augustus occupied the town of Parium on the Hellespont and the already–mentioned Alexandria in Troas with veterans of his army, and assigned to both the rights of Roman burgess–communities; the latter was thenceforth in Greek Asia an Italian island like Corinth in Greece and Berytus in Syria.
— from The Provinces of the Roman Empire, from Caesar to Diocletian. v. 1 by Theodor Mommsen

But it always happens, that at length they are driven back by his power, wherewith if we be armed, we have a sure and invincible munition, whatsoever plots the devil may frame against us, and shall know by experience in the end, that even as the Gospel is the message of peace and of reconciliation between God and us, it will also avail us to pacify men; and in this way we shall understand, that it is not in vain that Isaiah has said, (Is. ii. 4,) that when Jesus Christ shall rule in the midst of us by his doctrine, the swords shall be turned into ploughshares, and the spears into pruning-hooks.
— from Letters of John Calvin, Volume II Compiled from the Original Manuscripts and Edited with Historical Notes by Jean Calvin

The bright autumn sun and the winds that swept over the many miles of tree-clad hills browned his skin; while his work with the ax developed his muscles and enforced deep breathing of the bracing mountain air, thus bringing a more generous supply of richer blood, which touched his now firmly rounded cheeks with color.
— from The Re-Creation of Brian Kent by Harold Bell Wright

Note O. —Related by Mr. Murray, Stretford Road, Hulme, Manchester.
— from Cats: Their Points and Characteristics With Curiosities of Cat Life, and a Chapter on Feline Ailments by Gordon Stables

And there, looking full in their faces, was a switchman with a red, rough face and a stubble of reddish beard.
— from The Turn of the Balance by Brand Whitlock

In other respects "business" with me is flat.
— from Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt — Volume 1 by Franz Liszt