The new form of government resembles the ideal in obedience to rulers and contempt for trade, and having common meals, and in devotion to warlike and gymnastic exercises.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

He was detained in his progress by having to repair and corduroy the roads, and rebuild the bridges.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant

He next him is Procas, glory of the Trojan race; and Capys and Numitor; and he who shall renew thy name, Silvius Aeneas, eminent alike in goodness or in arms, if ever he shall receive his kingdom in Alba.
— from The Aeneid of Virgil by Virgil

Under these circumstances, however, we are surprised to hear women and girls make remarks that reveal a certain attitude toward the problems of the cure.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud

For, if the lodge not only has a right, but is under the necessity of taking up the case anew, and deciding whether the person who had been suspended for three months, and whose period of suspension has expired, shall now be restored, it follows, that the members of the lodge, in the course of their inquiry, are permitted to come to such conclusion as they may think just and fit; for to say that they, after all their deliberations, are, to vote only in one way, would be too absurd to require any consideration.
— from The Principles of Masonic Law A Treatise on the Constitutional Laws, Usages and Landmarks of Freemasonry by Albert Gallatin Mackey

As true Wit generally consists in this Resemblance and Congruity of Ideas, false Wit chiefly consists in the Resemblance and Congruity sometimes of single Letters, as in Anagrams, Chronograms, Lipograms, and Acrosticks:
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

He then shewed me the steel spurs, at the sight of which the cock began to ruffle and crow.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Who nailed him?” “It was an old fellow—a stranger—and he sold out his chance in him for forty dollars, becuz he’s got to go up the river and can’t wait. Think o’ that, now!
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

At the same time a boat full of armed men appeared on the river and came alongside his empty canoe, thus shutting off his retreat.
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

All these tales, told in that drowsy undertone with which men talk in the dark, the countenances of the listeners only now and then receiving a casual gleam from the glare of a pipe, sank deep in the mind of Ichabod.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving

If not provided with candles or lamps, the lovers of this recreation are careful to select a store of pitchy knots, whose brilliant combustion relieves them from all the inconvenience of darkness.
— from Forest Life and Forest Trees: comprising winter camp-life among the loggers, and wild-wood adventure. with Descriptions of lumbering operations on the various rivers of Maine and New Brunswick by John S. Springer

By this time I was on the scene of the crisis myself, having only heard the news on my way into Trinity, which had been quickly occupied by the O.T.C., who were thus able to practically cut the chief line of communication of the rebels and command a huge area of important streets which would otherwise have presented the utmost difficulties to the advance of regular troops.
— from Six days of the Irish Republic A Narrative and Critical Account of the Latest Phase of Irish Politics by Redmond-Howard, L. G., (Louis George)

In this way might they reach a conclusion like honorable gentlemen and avoid much needless trouble.
— from Captain John Smith by C. H. Forbes-Lindsay

The mother then rose; and, coming toward Marsa to thank her, her sunburnt skin glowing a deeper red, the poor woman, with tears in her tired eyes, and a wan smile upon her pale lips, touched, surprised, happy in the pleasure of her children, murmured, faltering and confused: “Ah! Madame!
— from Prince Zilah — Complete by Jules Claretie

Through it there runs a curious vein of irony which is quite different from the author’s early or later quality of humour.
— from Charles Lever, His Life in His Letters, Vol. I by Charles James Lever

"A new lake?" inquired a friend who had already accompanied us to Rye and Croton Lakes; "pray how many does Westchester County possess?"
— from The Story of a Summer Or, Journal Leaves from Chappaqua by Cecilia Pauline Cleveland

No sound of a human being was heard in the house; only the roaring and crackling of the open fire in the kitchen below.
— from In Paradise: A Novel. Vol. II by Paul Heyse

But it is a very radical form of savagism in worship, including human sacrifices among its rites, and as we have anticipated that it had its birth in the rice- and cotton-fields of the South, further remark on this division of the argument is deemed unnecessary.
— from K. K. K. Sketches, Humorous and Didactic Treating the More Important Events of the Ku-Klux-Klan Movement in the South. With a Discussion of the Causes which gave Rise to it, and the Social and Political Issues Emanating from it. by James Melville Beard

They had finished their bread and cheese, and were sitting idly, being in no hurry to start on their way back, when a man on horseback turned off from the road and came up the narrow lane in which the house stood.
— from A Jacobite Exile Being the Adventures of a Young Englishman in the Service of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

Since all revelation comes down to us by human tradition, reason alone can be the judge of its divinity.
— from History of Modern Philosophy From Nicolas of Cusa to the Present Time by Richard Falckenberg