His old ideas came thronging back, and sick at heart of the life he had been leading among the Paris lumières , he composed a violent and rhetorical diatribe against civilisation generally.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Modo in silvâ fînitimâ lûdebant ubi Pûblius sagittîs 10 celeribus avis dêiciêbat et L[y]dia corônîs variôrum flôrum comâs suâs ôrnâbat; modo aquam et cibum portâbant ad Dâvum servôsque dêfessôs quî agrôs colêbant: modo in casâ parvâ aut hôrâs lactâs in lûdô cônsûmêbant aut auxilium dabant Lesbiae, quae cibum virô et servîs parâbat vel aliâs rês domesticâs agêbat.
— from Latin for Beginners by Benjamin L. (Benjamin Leonard) D'Ooge

The author of this poem is unknown, nor can I, on the vague and rather doubtful allusion to Thule, as Iceland, venture to assign its date.
— 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

“You are very, very absurd,” repeated Darya Alexandrovna, looking with tenderness into his face.
— from Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Modo in silvā fīnitimā lūdebant ubi Pūblius sagittīs 10 celeribus avis dēiciēbat et Lȳdia corōnīs variōrum flōrum comās suās ōrnābat; modo aquam et cibum portābant ad Dāvum servōsque dēfessōs quī agrōs colēbant: modo in casā parvā aut hōrās lactās in lūdō cōnsūmēbant aut auxilium dabant Lesbiae, quae cibum virō et servīs parābat vel aliās rēs domesticās agēbat.
— from Latin for Beginners by Benjamin L. (Benjamin Leonard) D'Ooge

Thus, when the slave asks for a few hours of virtuous freedom, his cunning master takes advantage of his ignorance, and cheers him with a dose of vicious and revolting dissipation, artfully labeled with the name of LIBERTY.
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass

But if the distractions be voluntary there is sin, But, unless the mind be altogether filled with distractions, not thinking of God, of prayer, of the words or of the meaning, and unless the distractions are fully voluntary and reflective during a notable part of the office, there is no mortal sin.
— from The Divine Office A Study of the Roman Breviary by Edward J. Quigley

So that this great Hindu victory at Raichur deserved a better fate than to be passed over by the historians as if it had been an event of small importance.
— from A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India by Nunes, Fernão, active 16th century

All these barbarities ended in Europe with the close of the eighteenth century, where the new Religion of [Pg 163] Humanity had been preached by the encyclopedists whose major prophets were Voltaire and Rousseau, Diderot and D’Alembert.
— from The Jew, The Gypsy and El Islam by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir

The captain looked at me sharply, scrutinisingly, and without vouchsafing a reply, dismayed as if he had looked into the face of an escaped lunatic, he called to the second officer and said, imperatively— "Have this gentleman and his luggage put ashore.
— from The Confession of a Fool by August Strindberg

This discovery seemed to me exactly like those tantalizing dreams in which you are sitting down at a table covered with everything nice, but before you have time to taste anything your visions are rudely dispelled, and you wake and look in vain for the tempting paraphernalia.
— from A Grandmother's Recollections by Ella Rodman Church

From a spare garret with one poor casement it had grown in an hour into a palace, vague indeed, but full of rich vistas and rosy distances and quivering delights.
— from The Castle Inn by Stanley John Weyman

The Bacchae , being from one point of view a religious drama, a kind of "mystery play," is full of allusions both to the myth and to the religion of Dionysus.
— from The Bacchae of Euripides by Euripides

Christian humility flies the eulogies of men: their praise seems a dangerous enemy, which, in flattering, withdraws the heart from the right way; it refuses the recompense due to merit, and contents itself with affording that good example, which the honour of virtue and religion demand; all which, Jupiter, in a homily to the fanatics, set forth at large.
— from The Visions of Quevedo by Francisco de Quevedo