But now Alexander made haste with a numerous and great army, and came out of Cilicia into Syria, and burnt the country belonging to Antioch, and pillaged it; whereupon Ptolemy, and his son-in-law Demetrius, brought their army against him, [for he had already given him his daughter in marriage,] and beat Alexander, and put him to flight; and accordingly he fled into Arabia.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

For we go backwards through all the steps in the following order:—If there is free will, all things do not happen according to fate; if all things do not happen according to fate, there is not a certain order of causes; and if there is not a certain order of causes, neither is there a certain order of things foreknown by God,—for things cannot come to pass except they are preceded by efficient causes,—but, if there is no fixed and certain order of causes foreknown by God, all things cannot be said to happen according as He foreknew that they would happen.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

For so great is the conceit of our classical teachers, who would almost make it appear that they had gained full control over the ancients, that they pass on this conceit to their pupils, together with the suspicion that such a possession is of little use for making people happy, but is good enough for honest, foolish old book-worms.
— from The Dawn of Day by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Each thinks how he will acquit himself in his condition; but as for the choice of condition, or of country, chance gives them to us.
— from Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal

After referring to the parallelism of the palaeozoic forms of life in various parts of Europe, they add, "If struck by this strange sequence, we turn our attention to North America, and there discover a series of analogous phenomena, it will appear certain that all these modifications of species, their extinction, and the introduction of new ones, cannot be owing to mere changes in marine currents or other causes more or less local and temporary, but depend on general laws which govern the whole animal kingdom."
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

So, too, the orders given to our squadron chiefs were to keep the sea as long as possible, [80] without engaging in actions which might cause the loss of vessels difficult to replace; so that more than once complete victories, which would have crowned the skill of our admirals and the courage of our captains, were changed into successes of little importance.
— from The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

And that every inhabitant of this jurisdiction, being convicted to be of the aforesaid sect, either by taking up, publishing, or defending the horrid opinions of the Quakers, or the stirring up mutiny, sedition, or rebellion against the government, or by taking up their abusive and destructive practices, viz. denying civil respect to equals and superiors, and withdrawing from the church assemblies; and instead thereof, frequenting meetings of their own, in opposition to our church order; adhering to, or approving of any known Quaker, and the tenets and practices of Quakers, that are opposite to the orthodox received opinions of the godly; and endeaving to disaffect others to civil government and church order, or condemning the practice and proceedings of this court against the Quakers, manifesting thereby their complying with those, whose design is to overthrow the order established in church and state: every such person, upon conviction before the said court of Assistants, in manner aforesaid, shall be committed
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

In the course of our conversation, he showed the sleeve-buttons I had exchanged with him at our parting in the West Indies, and was not a little proud to see that I had preserved his with the same care.
— from The Adventures of Roderick Random by T. (Tobias) Smollett

It was their favorite amusement to insult, or destroy, the consecrated objects of Catholic superstition; they indulged, without pity or remorse, a devout hatred against the clergy of every denomination and degree, who form so considerable a part of the inhabitants of modern Rome; and their fanatic zeal might aspire to subvert the throne of Antichrist, to purify, with blood and fire, the abominations of the spiritual Babylon.
— 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

Summerlee was weaponless, but I was emptying my magazine as quick as I could fire, and on the further flank we heard the continuous cracking of our companion's rifles.
— from The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

He will recall the severities which the hand of Titus inflicted upon the Jews, the harassing siege of Jerusalem, the destruction of the Holy City, the profanation of the Temple, the desecration of the Holy of Holies, the transfer of its priceless treasures to the imperial city of Rome, the erection on the site of Zion of the pagan colony of Oelia Capitolina, the massacre of the Jews, and the exile and dispersion of most of the survivors.
— from Bahá'í Administration by Effendi Shoghi

"That is given already, Mr. Mowle," answered the officer; "such are the commands we have received; and even the non-commissioned officers are instructed, on the very first requisition made by a chief officer of Customs, to turn out and aid in the execution of the law.
— from The Smuggler: A Tale. Volumes I-III by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

Japan contributes only one convict to San Quentin and two to Folsom.
— from Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, March 1899 Volume LIV, No. 5, March 1899 by Various

Make a complete outline of Chapter I .
— from The Science of Human Nature A Psychology for Beginners by William Henry Pyle

‘Make no cable out of cobweb!’ said a celebrated poet whose name does not occur to me at this moment.
— from O. T., A Danish Romance by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

As I have not hitherto distinguished these cases from each other; and as I could only offer conjectures on the subject, I think it best to leave it for future inquiry.
— from An Essay on the Application of the Lunar Caustic in the Cure of Certain Wounds and Ulcers by John Higginbottom

prudent so to do; as Adriana says, "It was a Copy of our Conference, Alone it was the subject of our Theme, In company I often glanc'd at it, Still did I place it in his constant view."
— from The Intimate Letters of Hester Piozzi and Penelope Pennington, 1788-1821 by Penelope Pennington

If the wood fibre, after being carefully purified according to the method described in Schultze’s patent of 1864, were thoroughly desiccated and allowed to cool out of contact with air, and then dipped in acid of the strength mentioned in the specification, there seems no theoretical reason why an explosive powder containing at least 90% of true tri-nitro-cellulose should not be produced.
— from Cooley's Cyclopædia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades..., Sixth Edition, Volume I by Richard Vine Tuson