And our Cretan colony ought also to acquire the fairest and noblest reputation for virtue from other men; and there is every reason to expect that, if the reality answers to the idea, she will be one of the few well-ordered cities which the sun and the other Gods behold.
— from Laws by Plato

These you have absolutely rejected; and that, though in saucy terms enough, yet in such a manner as makes me admire you the more.
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

They have grown used to my being a workman, and see nothing strange in my carrying a pail of paint and putting in windows, though I am of noble rank; on the contrary, people are glad to give me orders, and I am now considered a first-rate workman, and the best foreman after Radish, who, though he has regained his health, and though, as before, he paints the cupola on the belfry without scaffolding, has no longer the force to control the workmen; instead of him I now run about the town looking for work, I engage the workmen and pay them, borrow money at a high rate of interest, and now that I myself am a contractor, I understand how it is that one may have to waste three days racing about the town in search of tilers on account of some twopenny-halfpenny job.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

What I regard as the type is seen in Pl.
— from Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times by John Stewart Milne

For my own part, I can be more easily led to doubt the things which I have written in the first book, than to attempt to reduce all the things I shall write in this one to any orderly system."
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

The clergy vehemently exclaimed, that he aggravated the crime of rebellion by the guilt of apostasy; that, by his permission, the altar of victory was again restored; and that the idolatrous symbols of Jupiter and Hercules were displayed in the field, against the invincible standard of the cross.
— 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

Everything went well up to the roast, then the bell began to ring again, three times in succession, three heavy, long strokes which vibrated to the tips of our fingers and which stopped our conversation short.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

No, no, you will proceed into this small vaulted room, and through this into several others, without perceiving anything very remarkable in either.
— from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

People would have it that life in the country is dull; whereas, if I were to spend a single day as it is spent by some folk, with their stupid clubs and their restaurants and their theatres, I should die of ennui.
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

And immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne: and he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.
— from The Book of Common Prayer and The Scottish Liturgy by Episcopal Church in Scotland

and v.:— “ And there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.
— from Galicia, the Switzerland of Spain by Annette M. B. Meakin

Some of the seamen were of opinion they might have retreated at this time in safety, if they had not been astonished at the strange manner in which they were attacked, by a number of horses galloping up to them without riders, which caused them for some time to stand amazed, not knowing what way to proceed; but on a little reflection they bestirred themselves to make the best of their way to the Mercury, in which they all succeeded except five, who were made prisoners.
— from A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 10 Arranged in systematic order: Forming a complete history of the origin and progress of navigation, discovery, and commerce, by sea and land, from the earliest ages to the present time. by Robert Kerr

On March 8th William Fish, his son, and Thompson, a companion, were riding along the "trace," in search of provisions for a group of families fortified on the Yadkin, when a flight of arrows hurtled from the cane-brake, and Fish and his son fell dead.
— from The Conquest of the Old Southwest; the romantic story of the early pioneers into Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Kentucky, 1740-1790 by Archibald Henderson

And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was [185] a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald."
— from Christianity as Mystical Fact, and the Mysteries of Antiquity by Rudolf Steiner

As, however, they had not been with the fleet, but had remained all the time in search of us, we were disappointed of our letters, and they at finding themselves 'the day after the fair.'
— from Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez, Vol. I by Ross, John, Sir

Mrs Harrel then, though rather from compulsion than conviction, declared she would agree to go, if she had not a dread of ill usage; but Mr Harrel, she said, had behaved to her with the utmost brutality, calling her the cause of his ruin, and threatening that if she procured not this thousand pound before the ensuing evening, she should be treated as she deserved for her extravagance and folly.
— from Cecilia; Or, Memoirs of an Heiress — Volume 2 by Fanny Burney

Very few of the monks remained, and those that I saw had their heads and arms bandaged up on account of the wounds they had received.
— from Autobiography of Sir John Rennie, F.R.S., Past President of the Institute of Civil Engineers Comprising the history of his professional life, together with reminiscences dating from the commencement of the century to the present time. by Rennie, John, Sir

Had not Voltaire remarked about tournaments that il se fait des révolutions dans les plaisirs comme dans tout le reste?
— from Theory & History of Historiography by Benedetto Croce

I am still positive that I was right, and that there is some sinister mischief brewing.
— from A Trip to Mars by Frank Aubrey