Claude Lorraine, the painter, was apprenticed to a pastry-cook; Molière, the author, to an upholsterer; and Guido, the famous painter of Aurora, was sent to a music school.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

Excepting in its foetal state, Man is without a tail, a privation of which he attests an hereditary and uneasy consciousness by the coat-skirt of the male and the train of the female, and by a marked tendency to ornament that part of his attire where the tail should be, and indubitably once was.
— from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

Figure 29 is said to represent fire, which amongst the ancient Persians was depicted as a cone, whilst the figure inverted represents water.
— from Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism With an Essay on Baal Worship, on the Assyrian Sacred "Grove," and Other Allied Symbols by Thomas Inman

Of these Libanius alone attempts a faint apology for his hero; who, according to Ammianus, pronounced his own condemnation by a tardy and ineffectual attempt to extinguish the flames.
— 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, on the other hand, there are considerations which apply to a particular class among those so designated,—for instance, to railroads, who may have a private individual at their mercy, or exercise a power too vast for the common welfare,—we do not prove that the [205] reasoning extends to a general ship or a public cab by calling all three common carriers.
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes

Montesquieu, who attributed to absolute power an authority peculiar to itself, did it, as I conceive, an undeserved honor; for despotism, taken by itself, can produce no durable results.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville

Without the least mixture, as it is said, of art or intrigue, the whole body of the people unanimously saluted him with the episcopal title; the concord and perseverance of their acclamations were ascribed to a praeternatural impulse; and the reluctant magistrate was compelled to undertake a spiritual office, for which he was not prepared by the habits and occupations of his former life.
— 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

TN: added em dash There stood the broad-wheeled wains and the antique plows and the harrows.
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by George Lyman Kittredge

Darcy had walked away to another part of the room.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The education of all Romans of that day was adapted to a far different result, and she could look with enjoyment upon the contests of wild beasts, or even view without disapprobation the struggles of gladiators trained to their work as to a profession, and, of their own free will and with full knowledge, taking its risks upon themselves.
— from The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 4, April, 1864 by Various

In the sacred volume of the Hindoos, called the Ordinances of Menù, comprising the Indian system of duties religious and civil, we find a preliminary chapter treating of the Creation, in which the cosmogony is known to have been derived from earlier writings and traditions; and principally from certain hymns of high antiquity, called the Vedas.
— from Principles of Geology or, The Modern Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of Geology by Lyell, Charles, Sir

When it was found that nine out of the eleven people must be carried over the snow, it is hardly to be wondered at that a proposition was made to leave a portion of the sufferers.
— from History of the Donner Party: A Tragedy of the Sierra by C. F. (Charles Fayette) McGlashan

He worked at them as problems to be solved.
— from The Hearts of Men by H. (Harold) Fielding

He knew that his uncle was a thinker, a philosopher; he would have liked to have a long discussion with him on points of philosophy.
— from Majesty: A Novel by Louis Couperus

Satan , that while he dwelt in glorious light, Was always then as pure as he was bright,
— from The History of the Devil, As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts by Daniel Defoe