“If this person Noble,” said Mr. Dilworthy, in a little speech at a dinner party given him by some of his admirers, “merely desired to sacrifice me.—I would willingly offer up my political life on the altar of my dear State’s weal, I would be glad and grateful to do it; but when he makes of me but a cloak to hide his deeper designs, when he proposes to strike through me at the heart of my beloved State, all the lion in me is roused—and I say, Here I stand, solitary and alone, but unflinching, unquailing, thrice armed with my sacred trust; and whoso passes, to do evil to this fair domain that looks to me for protection, must do so over my dead body.”
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Charles Dudley Warner

In Staffordshire, on the estate of a relation where I had ample means of investigation, there was a large and extremely barren heath, which had never been touched by the hand of man; but several hundred acres of exactly the same nature had been enclosed twenty-five years previously and planted with Scotch fir.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

Now, some demon of discord, flying over the Saracen’s Head at that moment, on casting down his eyes in mere idle curiosity, happened to behold Slurk established comfortably by the kitchen fire, and Pott slightly elevated with wine in another room; upon which the malicious demon, darting down into the last-mentioned apartment with inconceivable rapidity, passed at once into the head of Mr. Bob Sawyer, and prompted him for his (the demon’s) own evil purpose to speak as follows:— ‘I say, we’ve let the fire out.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

The Earl of Falmouth, Muskerry, and Mr. Richard Boyle killed on board the Duke’s ship, the Royall Charles, with one shot: their blood and brains flying in the Duke’s face; and the head of Mr. Boyle striking down the Duke, as some say.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

In Staffordshire, on the estate of a relation, where I had ample means of investigation, there was a large and extremely barren heath, which had never been touched by the hand of man; but several hundred acres of exactly the same nature had been enclosed twenty-five years previously and planted with Scotch fir.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

The bishop of Carthage was sensible that he should be singled out for one of the first victims; and the frailty of nature tempted him to withdraw himself, by a secret flight, from the danger and the honor of martyrdom; * but soon recovering that fortitude which his character required, he returned to his gardens, and patiently expected the ministers of death.
— 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

Ingratitude is not to be found in the heart of man, but self-interest is there; those who are ungrateful for benefits received are fewer than those who do a kindness for their own ends.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

And indeed the worst of my faults was a certain impatient gaiety of disposition, such as has made the happiness of many, but such as I found it hard to reconcile with my imperious desire to carry my head high, and wear a more than commonly grave countenance before the public.
— from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Earl of Falmouth, Muskerry, and Mr. Richard Boyle killed on board the Duke's ship, the Royall Charles, with one shot: their blood and brains flying in the Duke's face; and the head of Mr. Boyle striking down the Duke, as some say.
— from Diary of Samuel Pepys — Volume 35: May/June 1665 by Samuel Pepys

I have cut me a tally here on my belt, see—there be many notches—and every notch a life.
— from Beltane the Smith by Jeffery Farnol

In Soho-street was the house of Mr. Butler, somewhat too convivial in his habits, but one of the most thorough gentlemen we ever met with.
— from Liverpool a few years since: by an old stager by James Aspinall

To show his concern, and that he had nothing to do with the theft, he offered Mr Banks several pieces of native cloth as a compensation.
— from Captain Cook: His Life, Voyages, and Discoveries by William Henry Giles Kingston

He says: "In Staffordshire, on an estate of a relative, where I had ample means of investigation, there was a large and extremely barren heath, which had never been touched by the hand of man; but several hundred acres of exactly the same nature had been enclosed twenty-five years before, and planted with scotch fir.
— from Life: Its True Genesis by Horatius Flaccus

It was a space cleared by the hand of man; but still the question remained, what kind of a settlement was it, and of what extent.
— from Fire in the Woods Illustrated by James De Mille

"O south be north— O sun be shady— Until my lady Shall issue forth: Till her own mouth Bid sun uncertain To draw his curtain, Bid south be south."
— from I Saw Three Ships and Other Winter Tales by Arthur Quiller-Couch

Then Truyn leaned out of the window of the hack to admire the Hradschin once more, before subsiding into a corner with a sigh of content, and lighting a cigar.
— from 'Gloria Victis!' A Romance by Ossip Schubin