The Plataeans, seeing their enemies in a trap, now consulted whether they should set fire to the building and burn them just as they were, or whether there was anything else that they could do with them; until at length these and the rest of the Theban survivors found wandering about the town agreed to an unconditional surrender of themselves and their arms to the Plataeans.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

The associationists may prate of an idea of pleasure being a pleasant idea, of an idea of pain being a painful one, but the unsophisticated sense of mankind is against them, agreeing with Homer that the memory of griefs when past may be a joy, and with Dante that there is no greater sorrow than, in misery, to recollect one's happier time.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James

Then the President of the United States outlined a policy, and the history and constitution of his government was an assurance that this policy would be followed; the American government then began to do what it had not been able to promise .
— from Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal, Philippine Patriot by Austin Craig

This expression having once been used in the presence of an officer of marines, he was at first inclined to take it as an insult, until some one adroitly appeased his wrath by remarking that no offence could be meant, as all that it could possibly imply was, “one who had done his duty, and was ready to do it again.”
— from The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical and Andecdotal by John Camden Hotten

As ranks are intermingled, and as very large as well as very scanty fortunes become more rare, every day brings the social condition of the landowner nearer to that of the farmer; the one has not naturally any uncontested superiority over the other; between two men who are equal, and not at ease in their circumstances, the contract of hire is exclusively an affair of money.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

There is no intermediate stopping-place, no respectful shelter, where, with the delicacy due to genius and culture, he might secure aid, till, with returning health, he would resume his labors, and his unmortified sense of independence.”
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 1 by Edgar Allan Poe

It is, however, very curious how these little bits of acquired knowledge dovetail into the occasional requirements of everyday life, and equally curious to what strange and mysterious uses some of our readers seem to apply them.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney

This conviction is the ultimate sanction of the greatest-happiness morality.
— from Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill

That this is well understood on the “unsafe” side of the line that separates the rich from the poor, much better than by those who have all the advantages of discriminating education, is good cause for disquietude.
— from How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York by Jacob A. (Jacob August) Riis

In the first place almost the whole town, that is, of course, all of the upper stratum of society, were assembled in the cathedral.
— from The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Sir Yew ud se on, nothing daunted, proceeded to entertain him with an ordinance of the British Government, regulating the state he should preserve, and the furniture of his rooms: and limiting his attendants to four or five persons.
— from Pictures from Italy by Charles Dickens

From this elevation he sprang lightly on to the Treasury Bench, and astonished Members who, with him, had heard the chimes at midnight and after, by the quiet dignity of his manner, his unerring tact, his unfailing skill of management.
— from Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 108, February 9, 1895 by Various

Or cannot these, Not these portents thy awful will suffice, That, propagated thus beyond their scope, They rise to act their cruelties anew In my afflicted bosom, thus decreed The universal sensitive of pain, The wretched heir of evils not its own?'
— from The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside by Mark Akenside

True it is that in the latter part of this period the nation showed unmistakable signs of being overtrained.
— from The Right and Wrong Uses of the Bible by Richard Heber Newton

It is one of the most beautiful traces of God's likeness in even bad men, a characteristic to which there is no parallel in the animal creation, that though passion awakes passion, wrath wrath, and vengeance revenge—so that savages pass their whole time in an unbroken series of blood feuds, the hideous retaliation bandied from tribe to tribe and from man to man, generation after generation—the spirit of meekness, proceeding not from cowardice, but from love, disarms passion, soothes wrath, and changes vengeance into reconciliation.
— from The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Proverbs by Robert F. (Robert Forman) Horton

As for its ‘breaking itself in halves,’ many exaggerated stories are told by unscientific spectators of the ‘brittleness’ of snakes, the simple explanation being that all are alike irritated and terrified when rendered helpless by their tail being fettered, and may then struggle until they injure themselves.
— from Snakes: Curiosities and Wonders of Serpent Life by Catherine Cooper Hopley

With an unexpressed sigh of relief the last two of the original group of gossips dwindled away into the reception room beyond, congratulating themselves on having successfully engineered their exit.
— from The Heart of a Woman by Orczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness

He made a bundle of his clothes, while his uncle sneaked out of the house to avoid a collision with his little daughter, the only person of whom he was afraid.
— from The Graysons: A Story of Illinois by Edward Eggleston

That a wound then had been inflicted upon some one, the blood beneath the window now abundantly testified; and when it was discovered, Henry and Charles made a very close examination indeed of the garden, to discover what direction the wounded figure, be it man or vampyre, had taken.
— from Varney the Vampire; Or, the Feast of Blood by Thomas Preskett Prest