11 Thump — thump — thump — obstreperated the abbess of Andoüillets with the end of her gold-headed cane against the bottom of the calesh—— The old mule let a f— C H A P. IV W E are ruin’d and undone, my child, said the abbess to Margarita, ——we shall be here all night——we shall be plunder’d——we shall be ravished—— ——We shall be ravish’d, said Margarita, as sure as a gun.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

Th' infernal Serpent; he it was whose guile, Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived The mother of mankind, what time his pride Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring To set himself in glory above his peers, He trusted to have equalled the Most High, If he opposed, and with ambitious aim Against the throne and monarchy of God, Raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud, With vain attempt.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton

For it is not to be imagined that at one place the Rays which, for instance, exhibit a blue Colour, should have the fortune to dash upon the parts, and those which exhibit a red to hit upon the Pores of the Body; and then at another place, where the Body is either a little thicker or a little thinner, that on the contrary the blue should hit upon its pores, and the red upon its parts.
— from Opticks Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, and Colours of Light by Isaac Newton

To what extent are rural problems the result of isolation?
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

“Not the least bit in the world, esteemed and revered prince!
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Similar feelings were entertained at Rome when the news arrived there.
— from The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Polybius

I might have expressed this conviction in a lower key; but I am afraid it would have been the whine of affectation, and not the faithful expression of my feelings, of the clear result, which experience and reflection have led me to draw.
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects by Mary Wollstonecraft

Upon the king's passing into a law the famous Six Articles, which went nearly again to establish the essential tenets of the Romish creed, Cranmer shone forth with all the lustre of a Christian patriot, in resisting the doctrines they contained, and in which he was supported by the bishops of Sarum, Worcester, Ely, and Rochester, the two former of whom resigned their bishoprics.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

And is there anything greater to the legislator and the guardian of the law, and to him who thinks that he excels all other men in virtue, and has won the palm of excellence, than these very qualities of which we are now speaking—courage, temperance, wisdom, justice? CLEINIAS: How can there be anything greater? ATHENIAN: And ought not the interpreters, the teachers, the lawgivers, the guardians of the other citizens, to excel the rest of mankind, and perfectly to show him who desires to learn and know or whose evil actions require to be punished and reproved, what is the nature of virtue and vice?
— from Laws by Plato

Return to my own land I shall not, and I have brought no saving neither to Patroclus nor to my other comrades of whom so many have been slain by mighty Hector; I stay here by my ships a bootless burden upon the earth, I, who in fight have no peer among the Achaeans, though in council there are better than I. Therefore, perish strife both from among gods and men, and anger, wherein even a righteous man will harden his heart—which rises up in the soul of a man like smoke, and the taste thereof is sweeter than drops of honey.
— from The Iliad by Homer

R. Thou understandest it well enough, and rightly enough.
— from King Alfred's Old English Version of St. Augustine's Soliloquies Turned into Modern English by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

The throne was covered with fine gold from Ophir, studded with beryls, inlaid with marble, and jewelled with emeralds, and rubies, and pearls, and all manner of gems.
— from The Legends of the Jews — Volume 4 by Louis Ginzberg

The other medallion is a man firing at a wild boar , with "Et Armis" round it.
— from Memoirs of the Court of George IV. 1820-1830 (Vol 1) From the Original Family Documents by Buckingham and Chandos, Richard Plantagenet Temple Nugent Brydges Chandos Grenville, Duke of

He was a Presidential Elector in 1861, and was elected a Representative to the Thirty-Eighth Congress from Connecticut in 1863, and was re-elected in 1865.
— from History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States by William Horatio Barnes

Dobson's new toast to "fair women" earned a roar of laughter, but afterwards Dobson was called to account by a husband who realised.
— from The Flyers by George Barr McCutcheon

All were anxious to be pretty fellows, and they wore embroidery and rouge.
— from Les Misérables, v. 5/5: Jean Valjean by Victor Hugo

“Men believe,” says Bacon, “that their reason is lord over their words, but it happens, too, that words exercise a reciprocal and reactionary power over the intellect.... Words, as a Tartar’s bow, do shoot back upon the understanding of the wisest, and mightily entangle and pervert
— from Words; Their Use and Abuse by William Mathews

At last, after repeated failures, Garstin was beginning to work with energy and real satisfaction.
— from December Love by Robert Hichens

We elected a recorder.
— from The Crimson Gardenia and Other Tales of Adventure by Rex Beach

Brought up in France, amidst all the charm and culture of the best French-Protestant traditions, he was educated at Rouen, and he finally took his degree in 1912.
— from Captivity and Escape by Jean Martin