Preparations for the emperor’s voyage now being made, Claudius set sail from Ostia, at the mouth of (334) the Tiber; but meeting with a violent storm in the Mediterranean, he landed at Marseilles, and proceeding thence to Boulogne in Picardy, passed over into Britain.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

Every one knew how laborious the usual method is of attaining to arts and sciences; whereas, by his contrivance, the most ignorant person, at a reasonable charge, and with a little bodily labour, might write books in philosophy, poetry, politics, laws, mathematics, and theology, without the least assistance from genius or study.”
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift

Make ready, chela.' Kim turned to the woman with the turquoise headgear who had been idly pitching pebbles over the cliff.
— from Kim by Rudyard Kipling

The civil authorities, who in either case would have been very quick to satisfy the aggrieved white people had they complained and brought the prisoners to court, by imposing proper penalty upon them, did not feel it their duty to make any investigation after the Negroes were killed.
— from The Red Record Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States by Ida B. Wells-Barnett

See if you can make any of the sentences compound by inserting personal pronouns as subjects.
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by George Lyman Kittredge

The [3274] Romans had their feasts, as the Athenians, and Lacedaemonians held their public banquets, in Pritanaeo, Panathenaeis, Thesperiis, Phiditiis, plays, naumachies, places for sea-fights,
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

A high civilization is a pyramid: it can stand only on a broad base; its primary prerequisite is a strong and soundly consolidated mediocrity.
— from The Antichrist by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Eggs must be in proper proportion to the other liquids.
— from Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome by Apicius

Then, driven by its powerful propeller, it attacked this ice field from below like a fearsome battering ram.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne

This proof was given, in the earlier editions, incidentally, in the course of the discussion of the Biliteral Diagram: but its proper place, in this treatise, is where I have now introduced it.
— from Symbolic Logic by Lewis Carroll

In the same manner the Northern architects, while they grouped their shafts together, kept them so distinct as to allow every one to bear its proportional part of the load, and perform its allotted task.
— from A History of Architecture in all Countries, Volume 1, 3rd ed. From the Earliest Times to the Present Day by James Fergusson

The beginner in piano playing or typewriting pays attention to the striking of each key.
— from Increasing Human Efficiency in Business A Contribution to the Psychology of Business by Walter Dill Scott

This force was a special organization got up by one Bartlett, in pretended pursuance of written authority from me, but in fact, pursuing the authority in scarcely anything whatever.
— from The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln — Volume 7: 1863-1865 by Abraham Lincoln

In Virginia, Maryland, and all the Eastern Districts, the bird is plentiful, particularly during the autumnal and winter months, and is there well known under the name of the Screech Owl .
— from Ornithological Biography, Volume 1 (of 5) An Account of the Habits of the Birds of the United States of America by John James Audubon

Apropos, your sweet Miss Foldson, I believe, is painting portraits of all our Princesses, to be sent to all the Princes upon earth ; for, though I have sent her several written duns, she has not deigned even to answer one in writing.
— from The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 4 by Horace Walpole

A lovely morning; Bourg is prettily placed, for the plain has undulations and patches of copse wood, and you look back to the mountains of Savoy.
— from A Ride on Horseback to Florence Through France and Switzerland. Vol. 2 of 2 Described in a Series of Letters by a Lady by Augusta Macgregor Holmes

Old Doll Pentreath, one hundred aged and two, Deceased, and buried in Paul parish too:— Not in the Church, with people great and high, But in the Churchyard doth old Dolly lie!
— from Cornish Characters and Strange Events by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould

Wood-wind instruments, in forte passages, are twice as weak as the horns, 1 Horn = 2 Clarinets = 2 Oboes = 2 Flutes = 2 Bassoons; but, in piano passages, all wind-instruments, wood or brass are of fairly equal balance.
— from Principles of Orchestration, with Musical Examples Drawn from His Own Works by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov