Thus she, whom Nature made so strong, And safe against external wrong, No match for force, and its allies, To cruel death a victim dies.
— from The Fables of Phædrus Literally translated into English prose with notes by Phaedrus

A little old man in civilian dress, arranging his gray curls before another mirror, and diffusing an odor of scent, stumbled against them on the stairs, and stood aside, evidently admiring Kitty, whom he did not know.
— from Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Communication was of course very slow, and spring and early summer was the sailing season of Norwegian emigrants in those days.
— from A History of Norwegian Immigration to the United States From the Earliest Beginning down to the Year 1848 by George T. (George Tobias) Flom

And there was a great preparation of every elegant and sumptuous apparel, and of meats and drinks, and of every honourable guest, and every excellence of song and string, and every preparation of banquet and festive entertainment.’
— from British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes

They have nothing to do but eat and sleep and sleep and eat, and toil a little when they can get a friend to stand by and keep them awake.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

Further, I endeavour to make my speech literary, my definitions brief and exact, my sentences as simple and elegant as possible.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

The trail passes along on high ground—say a thousand feet above sea level—and usually about a mile distant from the ocean, which is always in sight, save that occasionally you find yourself buried in the forest in the midst of a rank tropical vegetation and a dense growth of trees, whose great bows overarch the road and shut out sun and sea and everything, and leave you in a dim, shady tunnel, haunted with invisible singing birds and fragrant with the odor of flowers.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain

"I don't believe in all that silly love-making," he rejoined roughly, "it is good enough for the loutish peasants of the alföld (lowlands); they are sentimental and stupid: an educated man does not make use of a lot of twaddle when he woos the woman of his choice."
— from A Bride of the Plains by Orczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness

The sailors now are heard to swear and scold, As each one's luggage is drawn from the hold; The bustle great makes passengers look round, Lest aught belonging them be missing found.
— from The Emigrant Mechanic and Other Tales in Verse Together with Numerous Songs Upon Canadian Subjects by Thomas Cowherd

[368] the distinguished gentleman to whom I have referred renders a patriotic service, and sets an example to all Bell-Everett men, who do not
— from Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 11 (of 20) by Charles Sumner

[168] —and the western coasts of Europe and Africa on the west, the Sudan and Somaliland (and even Madagascar) on the south, and North Russia on the north.
— from In Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times (Volume 2 of 2) by Fridtjof Nansen

These now rushed from different parts of the field, and, meeting in the middle of it clashed their swords, and struck at each other's hearts as fiercely as ever.
— from Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Louis and Neil seemed as spry as ever.
— from South from Hudson Bay: An Adventure and Mystery Story for Boys by Ethel C. (Ethel Claire) Brill

That one Englishman, standing on the tribune for justice and humanity, amid three hundred angry Frenchmen in uproar, was as sublime a sight as Europe witnessed in those days.
— from The Life Of Thomas Paine, Vol. 2. (of 2) With A History of His Literary, Political and Religious Career in America France, and England by Moncure Daniel Conway

The world was to me, at this time, what a toy-shop had been fifteen years before: everything was spick and span, and every illusion was set out straight and smart in new paint and gilding.
— from Confessions of a Young Man by George Moore

Those who had no money brought him shawls, and swords, and even clothing.
— from King--of the Khyber Rifles: A Romance of Adventure by Talbot Mundy