Whereupon they, out of magnanimity of heart, presently contrived to carry out, upon their shoulders, their husbands and children, and the duke himself; a sight at which the emperor was so pleased, that, ravished with the generosity of the action, he wept for joy, and immediately extinguishing in his heart the mortal and capital hatred he had conceived against this duke, he from that time forward treated him and his with all humanity.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Anyone who is annoyed at one and the same time by glowing heat, dazzling light, deafening noise, and an offensive smell, will certainly not fuse these disparate sensations into a single one with a single content which could be sensuously perceived; they remain for him in separation, and he merely finds it impossible to be conscious of one of them apart from the others.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James

On the 6th the ship's supply of brandy gave out, and, as the storm from the southwest still continued to rage, Waxel seriously proposed to return to America and seek a harbor of refuge, as it would be necessary in a few days, on account of the number on the sick list, to resign the ship to the mercy of the waves.
— from Vitus Bering: the Discoverer of Bering Strait by Peter Lauridsen

At length a few sips served partially to restore him.
— from The Piazza Tales by Herman Melville

Up between 4 and 5 o’clock and to set several papers to rights, and so to the office, where we had an extraordinary meeting.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

She promised to return it to-morrow.”
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

So the whole neighbourhood, who had watched the blaze during the night, and in the morning desired to know the cause of the fire they had seen, perceived the royal palace fallen in ashes; and, on searching through its ruins, which were yet warm, found only some shapeless remains of burnt corpses.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

Strengthen me with heavenly fortitude, lest the old man, this miserable flesh, not being yet fully subdued to the spirit, prevail to rule over me; against which I ought to strive so long as I remain in this most miserable life.
— from The Imitation of Christ by à Kempis Thomas

Unfortunately, however, it goes no further than this longing: the discontent consequent upon being unable to satisfy it is added to all other kinds of discontent which result from his life destiny in particular or which may be due to so called bad acts; so that a deep depression ensues accompanied by a desire for some physician to remove it and all its causes.—This condition would not be found so bitter if the individual but compared himself freely with other men: for then he would have no reason to be discontented with himself in particular as he is merely bearing his share of the [162] general burden of human discontent and incompleteness.
— from Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Here she was born in November, 1820; and it seems pleasant to reflect that but a few miles off in the same county of Warwickshire was the birthplace of Shakspeare, whose place among male writers seems more nearly filled by Marian Evans or George Eliot among female writers than by any other woman, so that we have the greatest English man and the greatest English woman born, though two centuries and a half apart in time, but a few miles apart in space.
— from The English Novel and the Principle of its Development by Sidney Lanier

Then Seuthes proceeded to remit pay due for the month already passed, but all he could give was the equivalent of twenty days.
— from Anabasis by Xenophon

She produced the ring of dark blue stones, and herself put it on Wenna's finger.
— from Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 15, No. 88, April, 1875 by Various

The dark groves, the women dressed in black and carrying flaming torches, the aged priests—the sight paralysed the Roman soldiers, but only for a moment.
— from A Short History of Wales by Edwards, Owen Morgan, Sir

'She is good-looking—a little coarse some people think,' resumed the young man; 'but handsome; black eyes—black hair—rather on a large scale, but certainly handsome.
— from Wylder's Hand by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Now, as I look back, I think it was sheer priggishness to resist so human and yet so reverent an impulse.
— from The Quest of the Golden Girl: A Romance by Richard Le Gallienne

Surely she possessed the royal beauty of the lily.
— from The Cross of Berny; Or, Irene's Lovers by Girardin, Emile de, Mme

She paused to rest a tired foot on the first step of the stairway, for a moment or two, quietly breathing her fatigue, then addressed herself to the monotonous labour before her, which was to climb five flights of unventilated stairs, let herself into the tiny apartment with her latch-key, and immediately begin her part in preparing the evening meal for three.
— from Athalie by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers