The modern sculptor is stopped short at the first conception of a figure; if he gives it its costume, it is grotesque; if he strips it, it is unmeaning and pitiful.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

For a few moments they stood in silent suspense, ashamed of their atrocious design, and awed by the venerable aspect and majestic firmness of their sovereign, till at length, the despair of pardon reviving their fury, a barbarian of the country of Tongress levelled the first blow against Pertinax, who was instantly despatched with a multitude of wounds.
— 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

“Hold,” said I, “stand still;” and made signs to him not to stir: immediately I presented my piece, shot, and killed one of the kids.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Suppose I stole softly away, suppose I made my way down to the central lake, suppose I was back at breakfast with some record of the place—would I not in that case be thought an even more worthy associate?
— from The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

There was also one other inn of Chancery, called Chester’s inn, for the nearness of the Bishop of Chester’s house, but more commonly termed Strand inn, for that it stood in Strand street, and near unto Strand bridge without Temple bar, in the liberty of the duchy of Lancaster.
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

In that state, I stood staring at Sergeant Cuff—and my powers of language quite failed me.
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

The guns are stationed in suitable spots and the beaters and their dogs, fetching a compass, extend their line and [ 191 ] drive the game up to the guns.
— from The Inhabitants of the Philippines by Frederic H. Sawyer

M.B. P.S. —I think you will not see my sister; she is still staying at my aunt's.
— from The Diary of a Superfluous Man and Other Stories by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

Snow is seldom seen, and the average number of days in which [Pg 302] rain falls is but sixty-nine out of the 365.
— from The Sunny South: An Autumn in Spain and Majorca by John William Clayton

“Everywhere within six or eight feet of the ground, where the surface is sufficiently smooth, and in some places sixty or eighty feet above,” he relates, “the rock is inscribed with the names of travellers.
— from Trails of the Pathfinders by George Bird Grinnell

It is good, in a day of small and laborious ingenuities, to breathe the free air of your books, and dwell in the company of Dumas’s men—so gallant, so frank, so indomitable, such swordsmen, and such trenchermen.
— from Letters to Dead Authors by Andrew Lang

If with a disorganized, unsettled people like ours, generally poor in the world’s goods, and with never-ending personal demands on their limited resources, we have been able to build and maintain so many churches, institutions, convents, and schools in so short a time, what may not be expected from the same class, now that they are regularly domiciled, and a portion, at least, of the wealth that ever rewards industry and application is fast becoming theirs?
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 23, April, 1876-September, 1876. A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science by Various

It is my Will, that, if any of my said children should die, before the complete distribution of my estate as above provided, leaving issue them surviving, that such issue shall stand and take in the place and stead of their parent, taking per stirpes , and not per capita .
— from Ancient, Curious, and Famous Wills by Virgil M. (Virgil McClure) Harris

The men adore her, she is so strong and so full of her queer, jolly fun.
— from On the Firing Line by Anna Chapin Ray

They looked up and down the narrow street, and seeing no one but Tor, who stood staring in stupefied silence after the beggar, they seized the boy and dragged him into the enclosure, locking and barring the door behind them.
— from Tor, a Street Boy of Jerusalem by Florence Morse Kingsley