43 Sunt autem multi, et quidem cupidi splendoris et gloriae, qui eripiunt aliis, quod aliis largiantur, iique arbitrantur se beneficos in suos amicos visum iri, si locupletent eos quacumque ratione.
— from De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero

Locking myself away from secretaries and visitors, I spent the next twenty-four hours in seclusion.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

—Lucan, v. 405] “Ac veluti montis saxum de, vertice praeceps Cum ruit avulsum vento, seu turbidus imber Proluit, aut annis solvit sublapsa vetustas, Fertur in abruptum magno mons improbus actu, Exultatque solo, silvas, armenta, virosque, Involvens secum.”
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

My Friend who writes from the Coffee-house near the Temple , informs me that the Gentleman who constantly sings a Voluntary in spite of the whole Company, was more musical than ordinary after reading my Paper; and has not been contented with that, but has danced up to the Glass in the Middle of the Room, and practised Minuet-steps to his own Humming.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

Lord Canterville listened very gravely to the worthy Minister's speech, pulling his grey moustache now and then to hide an involuntary smile, and when Mr. Otis had ended, he shook him cordially by the hand, and said: "My dear sir, your charming little daughter rendered my unlucky ancestor, Sir Simon, a very important service, and I and my family are much indebted to her for her marvellous courage and pluck.
— from The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde

The other working members of the crew are the man at the sheet, the tokwabila veva , as he is called, who has to let out the veva or pull it in, according as the wind shifts and varies in strength.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

When litigation arises in Malabar in connection with the title to a house and compound (grounds) in which it stands, a vow is sometimes made to offer a silver model representing the property, if a favourable decree is obtained.
— from Omens and Superstitions of Southern India by Edgar Thurston

The amount of protein in milk (4-5 per cent.) is not large, but it is united with fats, carbohydrates, salts, and vitamines in such proportions, that milk is about the only article which may reasonably present a claim of being a complete food.
— from Animal Proteins by Hugh Garner Bennett

Out of the general stillness a vague, indefinable sound now proceeded.
— from The Quest The authorized translation from the Dutch of De kleine Johannes by Frederik van Eeden

She laved her body daily in Nile water, Which can make fruitful even stones and virgins; It soon brought forth the mud's accustomed spawn, A valuable heir of all the lands.
— from King Lear's Wife; The Crier by Night; The Riding to Lithend; Midsummer-Eve; Laodice and Danaë by Gordon Bottomley

It never speaks, and vanishes if spoken to.
— from The Ghost World by T. F. (Thomas Firminger) Thiselton-Dyer

Bedrock projects on the top and on both sides, and vegetation is so scanty that the crest is almost a "bald."
— from Archeological Investigations Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 76 by Gerard Fowke

Such a voice is so full of feeling, so vibrant with life and emotion that it moves one to the depths even if no words are used.
— from The Head Voice and Other Problems: Practical Talks on Singing by D. A. (David Alva) Clippinger

She seeks a very inaccessible spot in the midst of brushwood and thickets of reeds.
— from The Industries of Animals by Frédéric Houssay

She was simple and young, and the song was sung With so sweet a voice, in so strange a tongue, That she follow'd blindly the Devil-song
— from Kentucky in American Letters, 1784-1912. Vol. 2 of 2 by John Wilson Townsend