"Now bid thy heralds sound the loud alarms, And call the squadrons sheathed in brazen arms; Now seize the occasion, now the troops survey, And lead to war when heaven directs the way.
— from The Iliad by Homer

There were few trees, or none, those that would have grown in the hedges being mercilessly plashed down with the quickset by the tenant-farmers, the natural enemies of tree, bush, and brake.
— from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy

"I say it," he returned, "because those blows just now were more because of the quarrel the devil stirred up between us both the other night, than for what I said against my lady Dulcinea, whom I love and reverence as I would a relic—though there is nothing of that about her—merely as something belonging to your worship."
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

The several reigns from the death of Augustus present us with uncommon scenes of cruelty and horror; but it was reserved for that of Nero to exhibit to the world the atrocious act of an emperor deliberately procuring the death of his mother.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

‘Tis undone, when all is done, Ended e’er it was begun: Hardly gallop, if you trot, Set not forward when you run, Nor be single, though alone, Take, or not take her.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

The Cossacks sold the horse for two gold pieces, and Rostóv, being the richest of the officers now that he had received his money, bought it.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

The queen went to public thanksgiving in St. Paul's church, accompanied by a glorious train of nobility, through the streets of London, which were hung with blue cloth, the companies standing on both sides in their liveries; the banners that were taken from the enemies were spread; she heard the sermon, and public thanks were rendered unto God with great joy.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

She could think of nothing that diverted her from saying: “You must be very fond of me, Henrietta, to be willing to be so aggressive.”
— from The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 1 by Henry James

Neither kings, nor those consuls, tyrannical as they were before the institution of the tribunitian office, nor the stern authority of the dictator, nor the overbearing decemvirs, ever imposed such slavery as that they should perform unremitting military service, which degree of regal power the military tribunes now exercised over the Roman commons.
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy

He took a wheel off, or kept a perishing nag, that could not walk, hitched to the truck over night to make (p. 270) it appear that it was there for business.
— from The Battle with the Slum by Jacob A. (Jacob August) Riis

I believe that I am a Ninevite with regard to other Jonahs from whom I have learned and shall learn of the truth; but that I am a Jonah in regard to other Ninevites to whom I am bound to transmit the truth.
— from My Religion by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

MERCURY It is possible, perhaps probable, that there may be an inner Planet, but, so far as we [Pg 389] know for certain, Mercury is the one nearest to the Sun, its average distance being 36,000,000 miles.
— from The Beauties of Nature, and the Wonders of the World We Live In by Lubbock, John, Sir

On coming up, they informed us that they had fallen in with a tribe of natives, twelve in number, shortly after starting, and had remained some time with them.
— from Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia Performed Under the Authority of Her Majesty's Government, During the Years 1844, 5, and 6, Together With A Notice of the Province of South Australia in 1847 by Charles Sturt

If the animals did not arrive soon, they ought not to stop.
— from Kit Musgrave's Luck by Harold Bindloss

Some houses standing at the summit have a finer position or possess legal rights of view which compel their opposite neighbors to keep their buildings down to a required height.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

We are not told of nostoc, this time: it is said that the object contained numerous eggs of "some species of Chironomus, from which larvae soon emerged."
— from The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort

The Post Office has been unceasing in its efforts to put a stop to the transmission of newspapers through the post, except with postage stamps affixed to them.
— from Rambles on Railways by Roney, Cusack P., Sir

Stubborn all were his people from cottar to overlord— Not to be cowed by the cudgel, scarce to be schooled by the sword; Quick to turn at their pleasure, cruel to cross in their mood, And set on paths of their choosing as the hogs of Andred's Wood.
— from Songs from Books by Rudyard Kipling

Seeing they did not, the antelopes resumed their grazing, the two most timid stopping every now and then to look up, as if in doubt whether they ought not to place a greater distance between them and the strange-looking creatures on the elevation.
— from Deerfoot on the Prairies by Edward Sylvester Ellis