At first glance it would seem that one man on a desert island could not possibly furnish the material for a long story; but as we read we realize with amazement that every slightest thought and action--the saving of the cargo of the shipwrecked vessel, the preparation for defense against imaginary foes, the intense agitation over the discovery of a footprint in the sand--is a record of what the reader himself would do and feel if he were alone in such a place.
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

But if any one desires to hear what will be the end to the warfare itself, let him learn that the distance still remaining before we reach the river Ganges and the Eastern Sea is not great; and I inform you that the Hyrcanian Sea will be seen to be united with this, because the Great Sea encircles the whole earth.
— from The Anabasis of Alexander or, The History of the Wars and Conquests of Alexander the Great by Arrian

‘Now stretch thou somewhat forward, but not much,’ Thereon my Leader bade me, ‘and thine eyes Slowly advance till they her features touch And the dishevelled baggage recognise, 130 Clawing her yonder with her nails unclean, Now standing up, now squatting on her thighs.
— from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri

And in the midst of a highway he met a damosel riding on a white palfrey, and there either saluted other.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir

The good soul, which has intercourse with the divine nature, passes into a holier and better place; and the evil soul, as she grows worse, changes her place for the worse.
— from Laws by Plato

He was received by the magistrates and senate of Rome; and the emperor surveyed, with attention, the civil honors of the republic, and the consular images of the noble families.
— 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

I thought this arose from want of ear on her part, but I find I can blame no one but her teacher, who is too indulgent and too easily satisfied.
— from The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Volume 01 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Arriving at the entrance soon after sun-down, we found a Chilian man-of-war brig, the only vessel, coming out.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

At the end, she rose up, and said to herself, in a melancholy tone: 'At any rate, her words do not touch me; they fall off from me; for I am innocent of all the motives she attributes to me.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

And now on the other side arise vast aërial palaces with transparent towers and hazy blue temples, and these also are tossed up and down by that elfin wag as if they were swimming upon it, and when she has tired of them she makes endless havoc of them, and towers and cities tumble together into a heap of ruins; and then the sea also disappears, and the eye sees nothing but a flock of migratory cranes coming slowly along.
— from Tales From Jókai by Mór Jókai

All classes are to be attended to, and the exhortations specially needed are to be given to each: to the older men and older women, the younger women and the younger men, to whom Titus is to show himself an example: and finally to slaves, for salvation is offered to all men, and is for no privileged class.
— from The Expositor's Bible: The Pastoral Epistles by Alfred Plummer

A bell of hollow, deafening tone, swinging heavily in its lofty tower with ceremonial slowness, that seems to have a mathematical rhythm and moves by some perfect mechanism, says in peals punctiliously adjusted to the ritual: “I am the empty sound that melts away without having made vibrate a single one of the infinite chords of feeling in the heart of man.
— from Romantic legends of Spain by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

So I said I wasn't hungry, though, Lord knows, I hadn't had anything to eat since early morning.
— from In the Bishop's Carriage by Miriam Michelson

The German tribes, for the purpose of military levies, had the mark ( markgenossenschaft ), which also existed among the English Saxons, and a larger group, the gau , to which Cæsar and Tacitus gave the name of pagus .
— from Ancient Society Or, Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery, through Barbarism to Civilization by Lewis Henry Morgan

IX A Secret that is Kept When on the next morning the pastor's family was at breakfast, the pastor arranged that Erick should not go with the other three to school, since he belonged to the school in Lower Wood and it was now too far to go there.
— from Erick and Sally by Johanna Spyri

The motive, the hope, the desire, the object, the plans, and the efforts should be much the same, changed and modified only as the conditions necessarily demand a modification of plans.
— from The Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy (New Series, No. 46, January 1907) by Pennsylvania Prison Society