The giant Mirabeau walks in darkness, as we said; companionless, on wild ways: what his thoughts during these months were, no record of Biographer, not vague Fils Adoptif, will now ever disclose.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

IX I never drank of Aganippe well, Nor ever did in shade of Tempe sit, And Muses scorn with vulgar brains to dwell; Poor lay-man I, for sacred rites unfit.
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb

The Bishops, whose paternal care extended itself to the government of both worlds, were sensible of the importance of these prerogatives; and covering their ambition with the fair pretence of the love of order, they were jealous of any rival in the exercise of a discipline so necessary to prevent the desertion of those troops which had enlisted themselves under the banner of the cross, and whose numbers every day became more considerable.
— 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

In the proud review of the nations who acknowledged the sovereignty of Attila, and who never entertained, during his lifetime, the thought of a revolt, the Gepidæ and the Ostrogoths were distinguished by their numbers, their bravery, and the personal merits of their chiefs.
— 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 never came within these abbey walls, Nor ever didst thou draw thy sword on me; I never saw the chain, so help me Heaven!
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

In the proud review of the nations who acknowledged the sovereignty of Attila, and who never entertained, during his lifetime, the thought of a revolt, the Gepidae and the Ostrogoths were distinguished by their numbers, their bravery, and the personal merits of their chiefs.
— 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

With a country as big as the United States to live and multiply in, and with no epidemic diseases among them till the white man came with those and his other appliances of civilization, it is quite probable that there was never a day in his history when he could muster 100,000 of his race in all Australia.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

Is there any woman, not entirely devoid of all sensibility, but desires an amelioration in the condition of the working class of her sex—those who earn a mere pittance, scarce enough to keep body and soul together?
— from The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work by Virginia Penny

Upon the divan itself there had been lying a little dog; ’twas a King Charles’ spaniel, a delicate pampered thing, which attached itself to her, and was not easily driven away.
— from A Lady of Quality Being a Most Curious, Hitherto Unknown History, as Related by Mr. Isaac Bickerstaff but Not Presented to the World of Fashion Through the Pages of The Tatler, and Now for the First Time Written Down by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Anne of Austria, whom nothing escaped, did not fail to observe the exchange of glances.
— from The War of Women, Volume 2 by Alexandre Dumas

By which he let us understand that he and his companions required food, and were not entirely disinterested in pressing us to have a feast on the provisions they had brought.
— from The Two Supercargoes; Or, Adventures in Savage Africa by William Henry Giles Kingston

Sitting on the front porch in a white necktie every day, while Claude was out cutting wheat?" "Well, anyhow, I guess Claude had more to eat when Brother Weldon was staying there.
— from One of Ours by Willa Cather

My mother, who carried her noble husband upon her shoulders as it were, and would not even die till he was dead.
— from Standish of Standish: A Story of the Pilgrims by Jane G. (Jane Goodwin) Austin

[508] LURLINE Beneath the billows of the great Rhine River dwelt the King of the Water Spirits, Rhineberg the Powerful, for whom the gnomes of the under-world and the sea had gathered together wonderful treasures of gold and jewels, such as were not even dreamed of by mortals; and here in his palace of crystal and pearl he held a mighty sway.
— from Stories from the Operas by Gladys Davidson

With the help of all our education, and all our reviews, could you and I have done better, and are we not every day, in our approval of unworthy books, doing very much worse?
— from Books and Bookmen by Ian Maclaren