“There are plenty of people in the world, solitary by temperament, who try to retreat into their shell like a hermit crab or a snail.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Andronicus, afterwards surnamed the Elder, was proclaimed and crowned emperor of the Romans, in the fifteenth year of his age; and, from the first æra of a prolix and inglorious reign, he held that august title nine years as the colleague, and fifty as the successor, of his father.
— 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

Otherwise it’s hard for them to get out of the common rut; and to remain in the common rut is what they can’t submit to, from their very nature again, and to my mind they ought not, indeed, to submit to it.
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Then, rising in the pause, a sweeter note, The dirge of spirits, who your deeds bewail, A sweeter note oft swells while sleeps the gale!
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

The strength that had been as a miracle in her body left and she half reeled across the floor, clutching at the back of the chair in which she had spent so many long days staring out over the tin roofs into the main street of Winesburg.
— from Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town Life by Sherwood Anderson

Longfellow stood by him in Cambridge, and even in Beacon Street he could always take refuge in the house of Mr. Lodge, but few days passed when he did not pass some time in Mount Vernon Street.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

My sympathies were soon with the Reformers in the Pretoria jail, with their friends, and with their cause.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

Of such soldiers, few could be tempted to sally from the gates; and none could be persuaded to remain in the field, unless they wanted strength and speed to escape from the Bulgarians.
— 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

If the thing remains in the hands of the defendant, it is clearly right that he should surrender it.
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes

The fact of varieties of one species, when they range into the zone of habitation of other species, often acquiring in a very slight degree some of the characters of such species, accords with our view that species of all kinds are only well-marked and permanent varieties.
— 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

There was enough for that right in this vault—both in reality and in the Games.
— from The Place Where Chicago Was by Jim Harmon

Vain-glorious men, such as estimate their sufficiency by the flattery of other men, or the fortune of some precedent action, without assured ground of hope from the true knowledge of themselves, are enclined to rash engaging; and in the approach of danger, or difficulty, to retire if they can: because not seeing the way of safety, they will rather hazard their honour, which may be salved with an excuse; than their lives, for which no salve is sufficient.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

The House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on a motion of the seventh of December last, respecting “the establishment of a post road from Knoxville, in the State of Tennessee, to the settlement on the Tombigbee River, in the Mississippi Territory, and from thence to New Orleans; also, for the establishment of a post road from Georgia to the settlements on the Tombigbee, to intersect the former road at the most convenient point between Knoxville and the Tombigbee;” to which Committee of the whole House were also referred on the tenth of the said month of December, and on the first instant, the report of a select committee, and a Message from the President of the United States, on the same subject.
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 3 (of 16) by United States. Congress

A great part of this additional debt would go into the hands of foreigners; and the United States would be heavily burdened to pay an interest which could not be expected to remain in the country.
— from The Life of George Washington, Vol. 4 Commander in Chief of the American Forces During the War which Established the Independence of his Country and First President of the United States by John Marshall

"Try as we may to build up the race in the essentials of good citizenship and win the good opinion of the best people, some black scoundrel comes along, and by a single criminal act, committed in the twinkling of an eye, neutralizes the effect of a whole year's work."
— from The Marrow of Tradition by Charles W. (Charles Waddell) Chesnutt

It has been plausibly claimed that, after its introduction into France and England, it developed into the full-blown style of the fourteenth century, which so soon fell before the Renaissance in the century following.
— from The Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine by M. F. (Milburg Francisco) Mansfield

In course of time the inhabitants, having disagreed amongst themselves, admitted certain Campanians; thus being forced to regard in the light of friends those most inimical to them, since their friends were hostile.
— from The Geography of Strabo, Volume 1 (of 3) Literally Translated, with Notes by Strabo

382 Sir James, detecting the intended plan, silently moved out two regiments in the dead of the night.
— from The History of the Indian Revolt and of the Expeditions to Persia, China and Japan, 1856-7-8 by George Dodd

She obeyed; he seized it with avidity as if eager to raise it to his lips, but halfway up released his grasp.
— from Victory: An Island Tale by Joseph Conrad