In a bloody and decisive conflict on the banks of the River Netad, in Pannonia, the lance of the Gepidæ, the sword of the Goths, the arrows of the Huns, the Suevic infantry, the light arms of the Heruli, and the heavy weapons of the Alani, encountered or supported each other; and the victory of the Ardaric was accompanied with the slaughter of thirty thousand of his enemies.
— 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 far, far more fortunate than all these is she ; if thou hast any wife, if thou shouldst vouchsafe any one the honor of marriage.
— from The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII by Ovid

All actions of which the consequences are not weighed and foreseen, are of this impotent and paralytic sort; and the author of them has 'the least possible power' while seeming to have the greatest.
— from Gorgias by Plato

Scabious is very effectual for all sorts of coughs, shortness of breath, and all other diseases of the breast and lungs, ripening and digesting cold phlegm, and other tough humours, voids them forth by coughing and spitting: It ripens also all sorts of inward ulcers and imposthumes; pleurisy also, if the decoction of the herb dry or green be made in wine, and drank for some time together.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

It is a controversial work, intended to point out to Queen Elizabeth “in how many and weighty pointes the pretended refourmers of the Church ... have departed from the patern of that sounde and Catholike faith planted first among Englishmen by holy S. Augustin, our Apostle, and his vertuous company, described truly and sincerely by Venerable Bede, so called in all Christendom for his passing vertues and rare lerning, the Author of this History.”
— from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England by Bede, the Venerable, Saint

They say he 's a brave fellow, Will play his five thousand crowns at tennis, dance, Court ladies, and one that hath fought single combats.
— from The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster

So little has learning or imitation to do with several of them that they are from the earliest days and throughout life quite beyond our control; for instance, the relaxation of the arteries of the skin in blushing, and the increased action of the heart in anger.
— from The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin

I tried not to—no one could be more keenly alive to the arrant absurdity of the histrionic bearing.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

More than fifty grocery-trade magazines have carried the committee's dealer advertising, although not all of these have been used continuously.
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

A new project was therefore devised by a certain set of intriguing men, totally different from the system of administration which had prevailed since the accession of the House of Brunswick.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

Hugh and I would have been so glad to go to you and ask you to let him be taken away, or to have asked you to help us to higher living till he was well enough to go.
— from The Wind Before the Dawn by Dell H. Munger

They had disproved or they would disprove the claim of Shakespeare to the sole authorship of Macbeth, Julius Cæsar, King Lear, Hamlet , and Othello ; they had established or they would establish the fact of his partnership in Locrine, Mucedorus, The Birth of Merlin, Dr. Dodipoll , and Sir Giles Goosecap .
— from A Study of Shakespeare by Algernon Charles Swinburne

So swift was the progress of the little craft that, within fifteen minutes after bearing up, Raoul and Ithuel, who again occupied their stations on the forecastle, saw the headland where they had so lately been concealed, and ordered the helm a-port in order to sheer out and give it a berth.
— from The Wing-and-Wing; Or, Le Feu-Follet by James Fenimore Cooper

"Why, there wasn't any one to honk!"
— from Motor Matt's Mystery; or, Foiling a Secret Plot by Stanley R. Matthews

At last the masts crashed overboard, and only the hull was left to rock to and fro until nearly full of water, and then dive deep into the ocean.
— from Cruise and Captures of the Alabama by Albert M. Goodrich

"Yes, Aunt Chloe," said Rose, "He is our peace, and hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; so that we are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone."
— from Elsie Dinsmore by Martha Finley

Rumor in London ascribes some of the bitterest of the "Saturday Review" articles to the pen of Mr. Edward A. Freeman, author of "The History of Federal Government," "The History of the Norman Conquest of England," and many historical essays—a prolific writer in reviews and journals.
— from Modern Leaders: Being a Series of Biographical Sketches by Justin McCarthy

Therefore, I hesitate to accept of the honour which you intend doing me, and which I fear I should not be able to go through, although I sincerely wished it.
— from The History of Mendelssohn's Oratorio 'Elijah' by F. G. (Frederick George) Edwards

He had been all along led to expect it, and with that in view had been earnestly and quietly at work preparing a speech in acknowledgment of the honor about to be conferred on him.
— from Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, Volume 2 (of 2) by William Henry Herndon