In the beginning of the 18th century, the most profligate man in France was an ecclesiastic, the Cardinal Dubois, prime minister to the most profligate prince in Europe, the Regent Orleans.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

After dinner to the office, and anon with my wife and sister abroad, left them in Paternoster Row, while Creed, who was with me at the office, and I to Westminster; and leaving him in the Strand, I to my Lord Chancellor’s, and did very little business, and so away home by water, with more and more pleasure, I every time reading over my Lord Bacon’s “Faber Fortunae.” So home, and there did little business, and then walked an hour talking of sundry things in the garden, and find him a cunning knave, as I always observed him to be, and so home to supper, and to bed.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

The material need not be cut, nor its usefulness for other purposes impaired, except that rings or tapes are attached at various points as indicated.
— from Boy Scouts Handbook The First Edition, 1911 by Boy Scouts of America

‘The hearing of all this,’ cried Pliable, ‘is enough to ravish one’s heart.’
— from Bunyan Characters (1st Series) by Alexander Whyte

The community does the very things it was created, by Morality and Law, to prevent; it exercises the right of the stronger against the challenger; it promotes war, not that of all against all, but of all against one, and its punishment is an act of war.
— from Morals and the Evolution of Man by Max Simon Nordau

Mrs. Scott and she are at present in Edinburgh; the rest of the children are with me in this place; my eldest boy is already a bold horseman and a fine shot, though only about fourteen years old.
— from Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume 5 (of 10) by J. G. (John Gibson) Lockhart

It was held in the civil war, for Charles I., by Archbishop Williams, who, being superseded by Prince Rupert, assisted the Parliamentarians in effecting the reduction of the place.
— from The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Vol. 2 by W. (William) Finden

The King had promptly discovered the part Venice had played in effecting the return of Montefeltre to Urbino, consequently he threatened the Republic with his wrath in case it lent any further aid whatsoever to the enemies of Valentino; this again strengthened Caesar.
— from Caesar Borgia: A Study of the Renaissance by John Leslie Garner

The Church has not only respected the conscience of the people in embracing the religion of their choice, but she has also defended their civil rights and liberties against the encroachments of temporal sovereigns.
— from The Faith of Our Fathers by James Gibbons

It is the vague apprehension of such dangers, quite as much as the merely selfish fears of the privileged classes, which preserves in Europe the relics of past systems of non-elective government, the House of Lords, for instance, in England, and the Monarchy in Italy or Norway.
— from Human Nature in Politics Third Edition by Graham Wallas

Nevertheless, the battle of Salamanca was the greatest and most decisive yet fought by the British in the Peninsula; it established the reputation of our army, and placed Wellington in the first rank of generals.
— from The Political History of England - Vol XI From Addington's Administration to the close of William IV.'s Reign (1801-1837) by John Knight Fotheringham