The tents of the Hungarians were of leather, their garments of fur; they shaved their hair, and scarified their faces: in speech they were slow, in action prompt, in treaty perfidious; and they shared the common reproach of Barbarians, too ignorant to conceive the importance of truth, too proud to deny or palliate the breach of their most solemn engagements.
— 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

When the Partridge was put into the poultry-yard, they struck at it and followed it about, so that the Partridge became grievously troubled and supposed that he was thus evilly treated because he was a stranger.
— from Aesop's Fables Translated by George Fyler Townsend by Aesop

Pure praises do not provide a comfortable existence; it is necessary to add something solid, and the best way to praise is to praise with cash-in-hand.
— from The Middle-Class Gentleman by Molière

Instead of confining his servile march to the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, he resolved to imitate the adventurous spirit of Alexander, and boldly to advance into the inland provinces, till he forced his rival to contend with him, perhaps in the plains of Arbela, for the empire of Asia.
— 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

equip, arm, man; fit-out, fit up; furnish, rig, dress, garnish, betrim[obs3], accouter, array, fettle, fledge; dress up, furbish up, brush up, vamp up; refurbish; sharpen one's tools, trim one's foils, set, prime, attune; whet the knife, whet the sword; wind up, screw up; adjust &c. (fit) 27; put in trim, put in train, put in gear, put in working order, put in tune, put in a groove for, put in harness; pack.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget

As you well know, it enjoys universal esteem, although we have never clearly understood its place in the psychic life.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud

The isolation of the mountain whites in the southern states, even if based on spatial separation, consisted in the absence of contacts and competition, participation in the progressive currents of civilization.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

I shall pull it to pieces as soon as I get home, and see if I can make it up any better."
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

V., Part II.; The Penal Code of Japan, and The Code of Criminal Procedure of Japan, Yokohama.
— from The Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the Era of Méiji by William Elliot Griffis

It is now certain that all this then inevitable train of calamity hung on arrogant and peremptory phrases in the prepared and written missive of the British Minister, to America, which the Queen (and Prince Albert latent) positively and promptly cancell'd; and which her firm attitude did alone actually erase and leave out, against all the other official prestige and Court of St. James's.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

It is dealt with by Sir Arthur Mitchell ( The Past in the Present , pp. 263-5), who refers to other "cup-stones" 149 that were regarded as being "efficacious in cases of barrenness".
— from Ancient Man in Britain by Donald A. (Donald Alexander) Mackenzie

The enormous half-circle was to bury its two points in the Persian mass and squeeze it inwards from two sides.
— from The Death of the Gods (Christ and Antichrist, 1 of 3) by Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky

Cuts also there were, pricks in the posterior fleshy parts; much rending of skirts, and other discrepant waste.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

The single spot united, as Gibbon puts it, the prospects of beauty, of safety, and of wealth: and in a masterly description that great historian has collected the features which made the position, "formed by Nature for the centre and capital of a great monarchy," attractive to the first colonists, and evident to Constantine as the centre where he could best combine and command the power of the Eastern half of his mighty Empire.
— from Constantinople: The Story of the Old Capital of the Empire by William Holden Hutton

Federal Government , in modern parlance is the political system which a number of independent and sovereign States adopt when they join together for purposes of domestic and especially International policy; local government is freely left with the individual States, and only in the matter of chiefly foreign relations is the central government paramount, but the degree of freedom which each State enjoys is a matter of arrangement when the contract is formed, and the powers vested in the central authority may only be permitted to work through the local government, as in the German Confederation, or may bear directly upon the citizens throughput the federation, as in the U.S. of America, and since 1847 in Switzerland.
— from The Nuttall Encyclopædia Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge by P. Austin Nuttall

Such a work could only have come to its perfection in the protected spaces of the old Mother Church.
— from The Thirteenth, Greatest of Centuries by James J. (James Joseph) Walsh

Gabriel was perplexed; in the presence of this anonymous note
— from Gabriel Conroy by Bret Harte

It was a question to many whether the Doctor's oven was red-hot or not, as he never allowed any person to approach him during the exhibition or take part in the proceedings.
— from Miracle Mongers and Their Methods A Complete Exposé of the Modus Operandi of Fire Eaters, Heat Resisters, Poison Eaters, Venomous Reptile Defiers, Sword Swallowers, Human Ostriches, Strong Men, Etc. by Harry Houdini

She paid strict attention to her duties, made herself in every way agreeable, and soon became popular in the parish.
— from A Woman's Burden: A Novel by Fergus Hume

the pt. of a Isd. passed a place in the projecting rock Called the hole thro the rock, a round Cave pass thro the Pt. of rock's West 11/2 ms. to a pt. on Std.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark