The allegiance of doubtful subjects is indeed most effectually secured by their own persuasion, that they hazard more in a revolt, than they can hope to obtain by a revolution; but it has appeared so natural to oppress those whom we hate and fear, that the contrary system well deserves the praise of wisdom and moderation.
— 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

He forgot the provocation, remembered only the injury, and advanced into the country of the Quadi with an insatiate thirst of blood and revenge.
— 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

Should the object be a red one, the yellow, green, and blue rays, all, in fact, except the red rays, are absorbed by the object, while the red is allowed to escape.
— from The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed

Had I been like many others, had I possessed the talent of borrowing and running in debt at every ale-house I came to, I might have fared better; but in that my incapacity equalled my repugnance, and to demonstrate the prevalence of both, it will be sufficient to say, that though I have passed almost my whole life in indifferent circumstances, and frequently have been near wanting bread, I was never once asked for money by a creditor without having it in my power to pay it instantly; I could never bear to contract clamorous debts, and have ever preferred suffering to owing.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The price of wool is also so risen that the poor people, who were wont to make cloth, are no more able to buy it; and this, likewise, makes many of them idle: for since the increase of pasture God has punished the avarice of the owners by a rot among the sheep, which has destroyed vast numbers of them—to us it might have seemed more just had it fell on the owners themselves.
— from Utopia by More, Thomas, Saint

About the ninth hour (three o'clock) the tide of business again returns, and flows incessantly till after sunset, when the signal of the royal supper dismisses the weary crowd of suppliants and pleaders.
— 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

But while the Phaedo and Phaedrus look backwards and forwards to past and future states of existence, in the Symposium there is no break between this world and another; and we rise from one to the other by a regular series of steps or stages, proceeding from the particulars of sense to the universal of reason, and from one universal to many, which are finally reunited in a single science (compare Rep.).
— from Symposium by Plato

DETACHED THOUGHTS ON BOOKS AND READING, 195, 411.
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb

The Crown is gradually acquiring a right of veto, which will probably eventually result in the order becoming a recognised honour, of which the gift lies with the Crown.
— from A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies

Down a broad yellow road troops of black and red cows are being driven, and horses with their blue wooden harness are drawing a cart laden with trunks of trees, led by a man in a blue blouse, with many an encouraging deep-voiced 'Hoop loo!' Everyone is bringing home cows, or wood, or cider apples.
— from Brittany by Dorothy Menpes

Within a few years it has been thoroughly repaired as to the interior, and now looks as if it might endure ten more centuries; and I suppose we see little that is really ancient, except the double row of Norman arches, of light freestone, that support the oaken beams and rafters of the roof.
— from Passages from the English Notebooks, Complete by Nathaniel Hawthorne

He spent the greater part of the day in the taproom of the Good Samaritan, accepting tankards of beer and relating details of the discovery.
— from The Millionaire Mystery by Fergus Hume

"It may have been carried down to the ocean by a river," he suggested.
— from The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs

The punches are operated by pressing the keys on the keyboard, the result of this operation being a roll of perforated paper ribbon.
— from Type: A Primer of Information About the Mechanical Features of Printing Types Their Sizes, Font Schemes, &c. with a Brief Description of Their Manufacture by A. A. (Alexander A.) Stewart

Finding that the falling rain had made the balloon so heavy that it was sinking to the earth, he threw out ballast and rose above the cloud.
— from Chatterbox, 1905. by Various

At the same time he was conscientious enough to attempt the task of being a real king—and a good one.
— from Italian Yesterdays, vol. 2 by Fraser, Hugh, Mrs.

The young and ambitious—there are all sorts of ambition, and, among others, that of being a rogue; as a proof of which, one daily hears people call envy, jealousy, covetousness, avarice, and half of the meaner vices, ambition—the young and ambitious , then, of this country, too often think to do a good thing, that shall have some of the peculiar merit of a certain other good thing that they have heard laughed at and applauded, under this designation.
— from Afloat and Ashore: A Sea Tale by James Fenimore Cooper

At moments when nobody knew where anybody else was or whether the ground underneath him was likely to remain in that sector more than a few moments or be detached and transferred to another, they would send by telephone or by a runner wild messages for an exact résumé of the situation.
— from Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, 1920-04-28 by Various

Many died at the feet of their god; the others broke and ran over the face of the land carrying the pestilence with them.
— from Life's Handicap: Being Stories of Mine Own People by Rudyard Kipling