With a view to the attainment of unconstitutional power, he had formerly deserted the cause of the republic when its affairs were in a prosperous situation; and now, when his end was accomplished, there could be little ground to expect, that he should voluntarily relinquish the prize for which he had spilt the best blood of Rome, and contended for so many years.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

“Yes, but length gives distinction.”
— from Father Goriot by Honoré de Balzac

"Do you remember, Sedley, what a fury you were in, when I cut off the tassels of your Hessian boots, and how Miss—hem!—how Amelia rescued me from a beating, by falling down on her knees and crying out to her brother Jos, not to beat little George?" Jos remembered this remarkable circumstance perfectly well, but vowed that he had totally forgotten it.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

They scooped out the inside of the waga , they carved the tabuyo and lagim (decorated prow boards), they made the budaka (lateral gunwale planks).
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

Would he have been less gay or less happy in the smiles of your sister?
— from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Who first, who last, by Mars' and Hector's hand, Stretch'd in their blood, lay gasping on the sand?
— from The Iliad by Homer

"To become like God," "to be absorbed into the Divine Being"—
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book I and II by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

And they too, they want love and pride; but love goes out with flaming cheeks; he is the proudest of despots; he will be all, or nothing.
— from On Love by Stendhal

The blossom is white and wax-like, with a faint perfume, and the berries grow on a branch like gooseberries.
— from Six Months in Mexico by Nellie Bly

Also I was hard put to it to keep the camp in meat, for although the country proved to be very sparsely populated, there was but little game about.
— from Maiwa's Revenge; Or, The War of the Little Hand by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

How Barnaba loved Guido!
— from The Galaxy, May, 1877 Vol. XXIII.—May, 1877.—No. 5. by Various

Brown, Colonel John, at Battle of Bemis'a Heights, 50 Successful Expedition against British Posts between Lakes George and Champlain, 114 ; Biographical Sketch of, 280 .
— from The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Vol. 1 (of 2) or, Illustrations, by Pen And Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the War for Independence by Benson John Lossing

Her friends supposed that her refusal to move was inspired by the belief that her husband would one day return to the spot from which he had vanished, and a beautiful legend grew up about this imaginary state of waiting.
— from The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton — Part 2 by Edith Wharton

Sir Francis Geraldine is the happy man, and Miss Altifiorla is the lady about to become Lady Geraldine.
— from Kept in the Dark by Anthony Trollope

It is found on Cemetery Hill, in Chillicothe, under the pine trees and along the walks where there is but little grass.
— from The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise Its Habitat and its Time of Growth by Miron Elisha Hard

I whispered; but Louis gripped my arm in a vice that forbade speech.
— from Lords of the North by Agnes C. Laut

He returned to China with a belt of gold around his waist, a ninety dollar breech loader given him by Louis, and a boxful of belongings.
— from The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson by Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez