But the Macedonian king, according to Polybius, having joined battle, was seized with a fit of cowardice, and rode off to the city on the pretext that he was going to sacrifice to Herakles, a god unlikely to receive the base offerings of cowards or to fulfil their unreasonable prayers; for it is not reasonable that he who does not shoot should hit the mark, nor that he who does not stand fast at his post should win the day, or that the helpless man should succeed or the coward prosper.
— from Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 (of 4) by Plutarch

"What a pity," she said, "that you and Ellen will cross each other on the way!—Newland," she added, turning to her mother and aunt, "is obliged to go to Washington about a patent law-suit that is coming up before the Supreme Court.
— from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

Thus they have music only 300 times during the year.
— from The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Volume 01 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

it gars me greet, To think how mony counsels sweet, How mony lengthen'd, sage advices, The husband frae the wife despises!
— from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns

Then, on, reflection, he began to think his mistress’s ways were growing odd, and that they were perhaps not wrong in wishing to separate him from her.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

The two remaining perturbations are, a joy elate above measure, and lust; and if a wise man is not subject to these, his mind will be always at rest.
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth by Marcus Tullius Cicero

Then he began to think that he might just as well say his prayers in bed, and then that it didn't matter whether he was kneeling, or sitting, or lying down.
— from Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes

To obtain the valuable acquisition of a pound of bread, the Goths resigned the possession of an expensive, though serviceable, slave; and a small quantity of meat was greedily purchased with ten pounds of a precious, but useless metal, when their property was exhausted, they continued this necessary traffic by the sale of their sons and daughters; and notwithstanding the love of freedom, which animated every Gothic breast, they submitted to the humiliating maxim, that it was better for their children to be maintained in a servile condition, than to perish in a state of wretched and helpless independence.
— 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 Noah was very uneasy at what they did; and being displeased at their conduct, persuaded them to change their dispositions and their acts for the better: but seeing they did not yield to him, but were slaves to their wicked pleasures, he was afraid they would kill him, together with his wife and children, and those they had married; so he departed out of that land.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

The unfortunate Villeneuve dared not trust to his master's forgiveness.
— from Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume III. by Walter Scott

Here must be all their trouble, here must be all their grief; Behold, saith Christ, 'the world shall rejoice, but ye shall lament; but your mourning' shall, mark, it 'shall be turned into joy' (John 16:20).
— from Works of John Bunyan — Volume 03 by John Bunyan

My Amazons, however, I mean my mother-in-law and my wife, trusted to their heroic mettle, and remained at home alone.
— from Solomon Maimon: An Autobiography. by Solomon Maimon

‘Jesu, I offer to thee here my pipe, My skirt, my tar-box, and my scripe; Home to my felowes now will I skipe, And also look unto my shepe.’
— from Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan by Clement A. Miles

Russia recognized slavery and carried on a slave trade through her merchantmen.
— from Slavery and Four Years of War, Vol. 1-2 A Political History of Slavery in the United States Together With a Narrative of the Campaigns and Battles of the Civil War In Which the Author Took Part: 1861-1865 by Joseph Warren Keifer

As the unhappy girl closed the door, Veronica turned to her mother with an air of triumph.
— from The Shadow of a Sin by Charlotte M. Brame

In that case, the time traveler himself might never be born.
— from Unborn Tomorrow by Mack Reynolds

According to tradition his master was his contemporary Hai Gaon; in reality he was the disciple of Judah ben
— from Rashi by Maurice Liber

But he resolved not to turn attention to the holy men or ask advice of them.
— from The Pharaoh and the Priest: An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt by Bolesław Prus