For the unenvious nature increases the greatness of states—he himself contends in the race, blasting the fair fame of no man; but the envious, who thinks that he ought to get the better by defaming others, is less energetic himself in the pursuit of true virtue, and reduces his rivals to despair by his unjust slanders of them.
— from Laws by Plato

And true enough, when the curtain rose for the second act, the reappearance of this throne-room, which the public had seen so often, added considerably to the general disappointment of the audience, who had anticipated astonishing surprises in this opera.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

Perceiving this, the division opposed to the Corcyraeans, fearing a repetition of the disaster of Naupactus, came to support their friends, and the whole fleet now bore down, united, upon the Athenians, who retired before it, backing water, retiring as leisurely as possible in order to give the Corcyraeans time to escape, while the enemy was thus kept occupied.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

To prohibit, by a perpetual law, the importation of foreign corn and cattle, is in reality to enact, that the population and industry of the country shall, at no time, exceed what the rude produce of its own soil can maintain.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

and I must play a new play; for thou hast slain my brother Sir Frol, that was a better knight than ever wert thou.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir

Both alike were strict observers of the ritual law; but, while the Pharisee was essentially practical , the tendency of the Essene was to mysticism ; while the Pharisee was a man of the world, the Essene was a member of a brotherhood.
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon A revised text with introductions, notes and dissertations by J. B. (Joseph Barber) Lightfoot

I remember Freddie Widgeon, one of the most chivalrous birds in the Drones, telling me how there was an alarm of fire once at a seaside hotel where he was staying and, so far from rushing about saving women, he was down the escape within ten seconds of the kick-off, his mind concerned with but one thing—viz., the personal well-being of F. Widgeon.
— from Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse

The first twenty or five-and-twenty miles he did 73 nothing in the world but fret and teaze himself, and indeed my mother too, about the cursed expence, which he said might every shilling of it have been saved;—then what vexed him more than every thing else was, the provoking time of the year,—which, as I told you, was towards the end of September, when his wall-fruit and green gages especially, in which he was very curious, were just ready for pulling:—— “ Had he been whistled up to London, upon a Tom Fool ’s errand, in any other month of the whole year, he should not have said three words about it.”
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

What were their emotions when they discovered his perilous situation!
— from A Sicilian Romance by Ann Ward Radcliffe

He crossed the atrium to the entrance where the young people, surrounded by their guests, were chatting gaily.
— from Quintus Claudius: A Romance of Imperial Rome. Volume 1 by Ernst Eckstein

This was to “say over” the Benedicite correctly, which (if by a rare chance one were still awake at the end) was to be followed by a succession of the hymns one knew by heart.
— from We and the World: A Book for Boys. Part I by Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing

The enemy were three times their number, but by skilful bayonet work they succeeded in killing the first three Germans on the enemy's flank.
— from The Australian Victories in France in 1918 by Monash, John, Sir

I have seen the worst places in the State, I have visited the girls, talked with them, eaten with them, and praise God, have helped some of them to do better."
— from Fifteen Years with the Outcast by Fflorens Roberts

But, primarily, the Sun and Moon were the only visible and, by their effects, so to say, tangible , psychic and physiological deities—the Father and the Son—while Space or Air in general, or that expanse of heaven called Noot by the Egyptians, was the concealed Spirit or Breath of the two.
— from The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1 of 4 by H. P. (Helena Petrovna) Blavatsky

The sun was long past the meridian, and, in spite, of the height, their shut-in position made the breathless valley seem hotter than ever, while the thorny nature of the low growth hindered them so much that at last Bracy had hard work to force his way through a tangled mass, whose thorny hooks clung to the poshtin he was wearing, and kept on robbing it of its wool.
— from Fix Bay'nets: The Regiment in the Hills by George Manville Fenn

This is, however, only transitory; the Roman Church, for instance, is growing stronger, not weaker, now { 193} that she has lost the support of French diplomacy, and the missions have entered upon their third epoch when they are preaching Christianity without any special support of a foreign government and are succeeding.
— from Changing China by Cecil, Florence Mary (Bootle-Wilbraham), Lady

She was an adept in finding birds' nests and wild honey; and though she would not consent to my taking the eggs, she had not the same compunction about the honey, and she only regretted with me that we could not be exactly like St. John, as Graylingham Wilderness yielded no locusts to eat with the honey.
— from Aylwin by Theodore Watts-Dunton