As to the relationship betwixt us and beasts, I do not much admit of it; nor of that which several nations, and those among the most ancient and most noble, have practised, who have not only received brutes into their society and companionship, but have given them a rank infinitely above themselves, esteeming them one while familiars and favourites of the gods, and having them in more than human reverence and respect; others acknowledged no other god or divinity than they: “Bellux a barbaris propter beneficium consecratae.”
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

I saw no one of higher rank that day than my colonel and a couple of orderly officers riding by in the smoke—no one on our side, that is.
— from Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray

The deliverer and scourge of Rome might have indulged himself in a season of repose; but in the same year of the flight of the German emperor, the indefatigable Robert resumed the design of his eastern conquests.
— 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

Though this "correct" play has tirades of remarkable beauty in the Senecan manner, its loose construction unfits it for the stage.
— from A History of Spanish Literature by James Fitzmaurice-Kelly

An impressive body of opinion is in favour of putting instinctive criminals to death, not out of revenge, but in the spirit in which Galen and Seneca advocated the destruction of incorrigible offenders against social life, regarding them as diseased members to be removed for the advantage of the whole
— from The Criminal by Havelock Ellis

“We have an extra bed in our room, but I think someone is coming to claim it in a day or so.”
— from The Mercer Boys at Woodcrest by Capwell Wyckoff

Madame, when not afloat on the sea, stuck to the sea shore, or read books in the shady entrance to her tent.
— from Madame Gilbert's Cannibal by Bennet Copplestone

Linnæus called the plant the Chironia ; its modern generic name merely signifies red, as most of the flowers in the genus have blossoms of some tint of red; but in the specific name Centaurium we recognise that the old myth still finds commemoration.
— from Myth-Land by F. Edward (Frederick Edward) Hulme

" "Mary was saying something about your faithful old retainer being in trouble," said Mr. Blake.
— from Tom Swift Among the Fire Fighters; Or, Battling with Flames from the Air by Victor Appleton

At his shouted word the Koreans discharged their rifles into the jungle at point-blank range, reloading on the instant; while Frobisher heightened the effect by selecting a spot where he could already see the glint of rifle barrels in the starlight and discharging all six chambers of both his revolvers in that direction.
— from A Chinese Command: A Story of Adventure in Eastern Seas by Harry Collingwood