In that case, too, the gods aid no one to reign, since all individuals quickly die; nor is sovereign power to be reckoned a benefit, because in a little time in every man, and thus in all of them one by one, it vanishes like a vapour.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

It was so pretty to have her clinging to me in that way, hiding her face, and to know that she was not crying in sorrow but in a little glow of joy, and pride, and hope, that I would not help her just yet.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Though I dismiss Dark, unavailing reverie, I just hint, in parenthesis, There is no stupid calumny Born of a babbler in a loft
— from Eugene Oneguine [Onegin] A Romance of Russian Life in Verse by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin

Pray you, let's have no more fooling about it, but give me your blessing; I am Launcelot, your boy that was, your son that is, your child that shall be.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

This morning, before we set out, I directed the following order of march:—The boats in a line.
— from Toronto of Old Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario by Henry Scadding

portano capeleti de palma como li albanezi ſonno grandi como nui et ben diſpoſti nõ adorão niente ſonno aliuaſtri ma naſcono bianq i anno li denti roſſi et negri ꝓ che
— from The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 33, 1519-1522 Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century by Antonio Pigafetta

He being gone I to my office again to a little business, and then home to supper and to bed, being in, a little pain by drinking of cold small beer to-day and being in a cold room at the Taverne I believe.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

B illustrates a leaf, divided through the middle by a line of overcasting; C, one with a corded vein; D, a divided leaf worked in sloping satin stitch; E, a leaf, with a corded vein and framed in sloping satin stitch; F, a leaf worked half in satin stitch, half in back-stitch and straight stem stitch.
— from Encyclopedia of Needlework by Thérèse de Dillmont

But I abroad Launched out upon the high and open main
— from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri

LE BRET (in a low voice to Ragueneau): Montfleury comes on the scene?
— from Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand

There is a good deal of stuff in it, both dramatic and, I think, poetic; and the story is not like these purposeless fables of to-day, but is, at least, intended to stand FIRM upon a base of philosophy - or morals - as you please.
— from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson — Volume 1 by Robert Louis Stevenson

What follows has a more direct reference; being indeed almost literally copied in the story.
— from The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete by John Forster

“Down I runs to pick up the dead uns, when I see an old mallard a-playing up all kinds o’ antics, jumping, backing, flapping, but fast by the head, as if he had his nose in a steel trap; and when I comes up to him, blest if a large Clam hadn’t hold of him, hard and fast, by the beak.”
— from Nature's Teachings: Human Invention Anticipated by Nature by J. G. (John George) Wood

Let a great many officers in all good time, all discreet and sensible men, be interested, and let them write for the papers....
— from The Life of Isaac Ingalls Stevens, Volume 1 (of 2) by Hazard Stevens

This article is not intended as a sermon, but if as lecturers we are to be educators we must not neglect to use the greatest weapons against ignorance in the educational armory—books.
— from The Art of Lecturing Revised Edition by Arthur M. (Arthur Morrow) Lewis

This last remark was at the time unintelligible to me, but I afterwards learned that the animal on the same seat with her had regaled himself upon the vilest of cigars while I was napping, and that the only attempt at an apology he had offered was a mumbled remark that, "as the wind blew the smoke out of the stage, he s'posed no one hadn't no objections!"
— from The American Gentleman's Guide to Politeness and Fashion or, Familiar Letters to his Nephews by Margaret C. (Margaret Cockburn) Conkling

And there came a time when the concentration of a good many different lines of feeling in Langham’s mind betrayed itself at last in a sharp and sudden openness.
— from Robert Elsmere by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

It had beaten the Pacific Express in a hundred yards, and what was to hinder it from beating it as long as it chose?
— from Christmas Every Day and Other Stories by William Dean Howells

Once—a fortnight ago, just after that talk with Aubrey—I knew he had been drinking, and watched, and came in upon them when there was no bearing it any longer.
— from The Trial; Or, More Links of the Daisy Chain by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge