The thing carried to its end and the damsel and the knight gone, the adventure set those who had seen it upon many and various discourses; but of those who were the most affrighted was the cruel damsel beloved of Nastagio, who had distinctly seen and heard the whole matter and understood that these things concerned her more than any other who was there, remembering her of the cruelty she had still used towards Nastagio; wherefore herseemed she fled already before her enraged lover and had the mastiffs at her heels.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

This unity is like the sun in the heavens, the light by which all things are seen, the being by which they are created and sustained.
— from The Republic by Plato

But more money they are persuaded to lend, but so little that (with horrour I speake it), coming after the Council was up, with Sir G. Carteret, Sir W. Coventry, Lord Bruncker, and myself, I did lay the state of our condition before the Duke of York, that the fleete could not go out without several things it wanted, and we could not have without money, particularly rum and bread, which we have promised the man Swan to helpe him to L200 of his debt, and a few other small sums of L200 a piece to some others, and that I do foresee the Duke of York would call us to an account why the fleete is not abroad, and we cannot answer otherwise than our want of money; and that indeed we do not do the King any service now, but do rather abuse and betray his service by being there, and seeming to do something, while we do not.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

[574] and Rousseau [575] think for thousands; and so there were foundations all around Homer, [576] Menu, [577] Saada, [578] or Milton, [579] from which they drew; friends, lovers, books, traditions, proverbs,—all perished,—which, if seen, would go to reduce the wonder.
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Indeed, only when the sunlight touches a steeple to gold does one realise that each such patch is a human settlement.
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

This chieftain—somehow would not yield at all: But flank'd by five brave sons (such is polygamy, That she spawns warriors by the score, where none Are prosecuted for that false crime bigamy), He never would believe the city won While courage clung but to a single twig.—Am I Describing Priam's, Peleus', or Jove's son?
— from Don Juan by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

So to the Swan, and there had three or four baisers of the little ancilla there, and so to Westminster Hall, where I saw Mr. Martin, the purser, come through with a picture in his hand, which he had bought, and observed how all the people of the Hall did fleer and laugh upon him, crying, “There is plenty grown upon a sudden;” and, the truth is, I was a little troubled that my favour should fall on so vain a fellow as he, and the more because, methought, the people do gaze upon me as the man that had raised him, and as if they guessed whence my kindness to him springs.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

The services continue around to the right, but occasional butlers direct that after serving the "lady of honor" on the right of the host, the host is skipped and the dish presented to the lady on his left, after which the dish continues around the table to the left, to ladies and gentlemen as they come.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post

I wrote to Mrs. Bruce, thanking her, but saying that being sold from one owner to another seemed too much like slavery; that such a great obligation could not be easily cancelled; and that I preferred to go to my brother in California.
— from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. (Harriet Ann) Jacobs

20 The Christian Revelation, which was consummated under the reign of Nerva, disclosed to the world the amazing secret, that the Logos, who was with God from the beginning, and was God, who had made all things, and for whom all things had been made, was incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth; who had been born of a virgin, and suffered death on 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

[page 330] Averrhoa bilimbi (Oxalidae).—It has long been known,* firstly, that the leaflets in this genus sleep; secondly, that they move spontaneously during the day; and thirdly, that they are sensitive to a touch; but in none of these respects do they differ essentially from the species of Oxalis.
— from The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Francis, Sir

This was her last year in high school, the year which should be the happiest, but she must resolutely turn her face away from all those little festivities that add such touches of color to the memory fabric of school days.
— from The Camp Fire Girls at School; Or, The Wohelo Weavers by Hildegard G. Frey

Mrs. Perry was always particularly fond of my mother—indeed I do not know who is not—and she had mentioned it to her in confidence; she had no objection to her telling us, of course, but it was not to go beyond: and, from that day to this, I never mentioned it to a soul that I know of.
— from Emma by Jane Austen

The dark coats of the riders, and possibly the speed of their advance, showed that they were Boers, and soon it was rumoured that it was no other than Christian De Wet with his merry men, who, with characteristic audacity, had ridden back into the Transvaal in the hope of overwhelming Barton's column.
— from The Great Boer War by Arthur Conan Doyle

There are six thousand inhabitants here, with some good buildings and a [pg 143] fine, broad, stone wharf, but it is rather a dingy place.
— from Afloat on the Ohio An Historical Pilgrimage of a Thousand Miles in a Skiff, from Redstone to Cairo by Reuben Gold Thwaites

The thing must be put right somehow, and at once, with as little waste of time and energy as possible, and Henslowe had shown himself not to be trusted; so telling a servant to follow him, the Squire had made his way with difficulty to a place he had not seen for years.
— from Robert Elsmere by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

Aside from the fact that it is not so imperfect as is averred, there is no plausible reason why the ignorant and the defective (whether through their own or another’s fault) should be denied representation to look after them and see that they are not abused.
— from The Philippines a Century Hence by José Rizal

Morphologically, in relation to their anatomic structure, the latter are independent; but physiologically, in respect of the life-unity of the whole, they are subordinated to the former.
— from The Wonders of Life: A Popular Study of Biological Philosophy by Ernst Haeckel

Our concern with Agatharcides relates only to the geographical knowledge which his writings display; and even of that we can only select such parts as are most important, and at the same time point out and prove the advances of geographical knowledge, and of commercial enterprize; before, however, we leave him, we may add one fact, not immediately relating to our peculiar subject, which he records: after stating that the soil of Arabia was, as it were, impregnated with gold, and that lumps of pure gold were found there from the size of an olive to that of a nut, he adds, that iron was twice, and silver ten times, the value of gold.
— from A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 18 Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century, By William Stevenson by William Stevenson

If the two bodies touch and share their respective charges, down goes the index of the electrometer!
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 26, December, 1859 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various