The disgrace and exile of Promotus were signified by a peremptory order, to repair, without delay, to a military station on the banks of the Danube; and the death of that general (though he was slain in a skirmish with the Barbarians) was imputed to the perfidious arts of Rufinus.
— 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

Now we must believe the legislator when he tells us that the soul is in all respects superior to the body, and that even in life what makes each one of us to be what we are is only the soul; and that the body follows us about in the likeness of each of us, and therefore, when we are dead, the bodies of the dead are quite rightly said to be our shades or images; for the true and immortal being of each one of us which is called the soul goes on her way to other Gods, before them to give an account—which is an inspiring hope to the good, but very terrible to the bad, as the laws of our fathers tell us; and they also say that not much can be done in the way of helping a man after he is dead.
— from Laws by Plato

We tend rather to frame our statement on the basis of the defects and needs of the contemporary situation; we take for granted, without explicit statement which would be of no use, whatever is right or approximately so.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey

So did the world from the first houre decay, That evening was beginning of the day, And now the Springs and Sommers which we see, Like sonnes of women after fiftie bee.
— from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts by John Donne

FEJEVARY: Go back on the dreaming and the daring of a million years.
— from Plays by Susan Glaspell

“By the bones of St Thomas,” said Prince John, as they retreated, “the Saxon churls have borne off the best of the day, and have retreated with triumph!”
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott

At last I went to Kingstreet, and there sent Crockford to my father’s and my house, to tell them I could not come home tonight, because of the dirt, and a coach could not be had.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

The Beds of Justice it had to undergo, in the coming fortnight, at Versailles, in registering, or rather refusing to register, those new-hatched Edicts; and how it assembled in taverns and tap-rooms there, for the purpose of Protesting, ( Weber, i. 299-303. ) or hovered disconsolate, with outspread skirts, not knowing where to assemble; and was reduced to lodge Protest 'with a Notary;' and in the end, to sit still ( in a state of forced 'vacation' ), and do nothing; all this, natural now, as the burying of the dead after battle, shall not concern us.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

It appears that the good soul provided an entertainment as soon as she heard of my arrival, and invited all her humble acquaintances of Bray to be present: but I was engaged subsequently to my Lord Ballyragget on the day appointed, and was, of course, obliged to break the promise that I had made to Mrs. Barry to attend her humble festival.
— from Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray

If I were capable of Envy, what I have observ'd of this Gentleman would certainly incline me to it; for sure to get through the necessary Cares of Life with a Train of Pleasures at our Heels in vain calling after us, to give a constant Preference to the Business of the Day, and yet be able to laugh while we are about it, to make even Society the subservient Reward of it, is a State of Happiness which the gravest Precepts of moral Wisdom will not easily teach us to exceed.
— from An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, Volume 1 (of 2) Written by Himself. A New Edition with Notes and Supplement by Colley Cibber

Some of these tribes have the horrible custom of baking the bodies of their dead after they have become decomposed, till only a black carbonaceous mass is left.
— from The Western World Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North and South America by William Henry Giles Kingston

I think the breeding of this dog appeals to a wider class of people than any other breed, from the man of wealth who produces the puppies to be given away as wedding presents or Christmas gifts, down to the lone wid
— from The Boston Terrier and All About It A Practical, Scientific, and Up to Date Guide to the Breeding of the American Dog by Edward Axtell

The building of the dam, and the laying out of the banks of the lake, called for many charming visits to the Vyrnwy; and although I was not in favour of the adoption of this scheme I now believe on the whole the Council did the wisest thing, as there can be no question of the abundance of the supplies secured by the city.
— from Recollections of a Busy Life: Being the Reminiscences of a Liverpool Merchant 1840-1910 by Forwood, William Bower, Sir

Surely he is mindful of us, cherishing us even more than when he moved a pilgrim in the body of this death, and drew us to him by vows and tacit prayer, entreating us in those evening colloquies ( vespertina colloquia ) in the garden by the chapel, that we should tread the royal way, and cleave to the footprints of the holy fathers.”
— from The Mediaeval Mind (Volume 1 of 2) A History of the Development of Thought and Emotion in the Middle Ages by Henry Osborn Taylor

Travel is enormously expensive, in all countries; we have been obliged to do a vast deal of it—come, Angelo, don't put any more sugar in your tea, I'm just over one indigestion and don't want another right away—been obliged to do a deal of it, as I was saying.
— from Those Extraordinary Twins by Mark Twain

In The Book of Enoch these two constellations are identified as Leviathan and Behemoth-Bekhmut, or the Dragon and Hippopotamus = Great Bear, and they are the primal pair that were first created in the Garden of Eden.
— from The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 3 of 4 by H. P. (Helena Petrovna) Blavatsky

"He wants to be over there driving an ambulance—doing his bit.
— from The Tin Soldier by Temple Bailey

Oree is a good man, in the utmost sense of the word; but many of the people are far from being of that disposition, and seem to take advantage of his old age; Teraderre, his grandson and heir, being yet but a youth.
— from A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 14 by Robert Kerr