The crowd of writers of every nation, who impute the destruction of the Roman monuments to the Goths and the Christians, have neglected to inquire how far they were animated by a hostile principle, and how far they possessed the means and the leisure to satiate their enmity.
— 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

The sober decency, earnestness and authority of their declaration of the real purpose of marriage will be honored and accepted, whilst their romantic vowings and pledgings and until-death-do-us-partings and the like will be expunged as unbearable frivolities.
— from Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy by Bernard Shaw

Life of Pyrrhus, c. 8.]—As much said the Greeks of that which Flaminius brought into their country; and Philip, beholding from an eminence the order and distribution of the Roman camp formed in his kingdom by Publius Sulpicius Galba, spake to the same effect.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Their numerous congregations, both in cities and in the country, were deprived of the rights of citizens, and of the exercise of religious worship.
— 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

If you desire the Diameters of the Rings made by the Light of any other unmix'd Colour, you may find them readily by putting them to the Diameters of the bright yellow ones in a subduplicate Proportion of the Intervals of the Fits of the Rays of those Colours when equally inclined to the refracting or reflecting Surface which caused those Fits, that is, [Pg 305] by putting the Diameters of the Rings made by the Rays in the Extremities and Limits of the seven Colours, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, proportional to the Cube-roots of the Numbers, 1, 8/9, 5/6, 3/4, 2/3, 3/5, 9/16, 1/2, which express the Lengths of a Monochord sounding the Notes in an Eighth: For by this means the Diameters of the Rings of these Colours will be found pretty nearly in the same Proportion to one another, which they ought to have by the fifth of these Observations.
— from Opticks Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, and Colours of Light by Isaac Newton

And not as a mere privilege!—From this time forward the type of the Saviour was corrupted, bit by bit, by the doctrine of judgment and of the second coming, the doctrine of death as a sacrifice, the doctrine of the resurrection , by means of which the entire concept of “blessedness,” the whole and only reality of the gospels, is juggled away—in favour of a state of existence after death!...
— from The Antichrist by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

I could not however do otherwise than reply to the letter of Madam d’Epinay without acknowledging myself to be worthy of the treatment with which she and her friend overwhelmed me.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Clifts fortunately for us we found an excellent Chanel to pass down on the right of a Stony Island half a mile below this bad place, we arived at the enterance of Big Horn River on the Stard.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

We should have had them some days earlier, but for the loss of two of the vines, either by a disease of the roots or by those infernal bugs.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 108, October, 1866 A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics by Various

In face of the modern world, that which the Catholic priest most needs, after virtue, is the best cultivation of mind, which issues in comprehensiveness of view, in exactness of perception, in the clear discernment of the relations of truths and of the limitations of scientific knowledge, in fairness and flexibility of thought, in ease and grace of expression, in candor, in reasonableness; the intellectual culture which brings the mind into form gives it the control of its faculties, creates the habit of attention, and develops firmness of grasp.
— from Means and Ends of Education by John Lancaster Spalding

Mrs. Pasmer neatly conveyed the regrets of her husband, who had hoped up to the last moment that the heavy cold he had taken would let him come with her; and the invalid made her guest sit down on the right hand of her bed, which seemed to be the place of honour, while her husband took Dan's place on the left, and admired his wife's skill in fence.
— from April Hopes by William Dean Howells

Tacitus, the Latin historian, prophesied the downfall of the Roman empire and its attendant calamities more than five hundred years before its occurrence, which was fulfilled to the letter.
— from The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors; Or, Christianity Before Christ by Kersey Graves

Even the daily removal of refuse entails the necessity of places for the deposit of the refuse, and therefore this principle must be applied in various ways to suit local convenience.
— from Scientific American Supplement, No. 421, January 26, 1884 by Various

These similes are accurately descriptive of the river so seen, especially towards evening when the western light is on the water.
— from The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 6 (of 8) by William Wordsworth

Cannon had been made with double or triple reinforces of metal, so that their exterior surface was stepped longitudinally from muzzle to breech.
— from The Evolution of Naval Armament by Frederick Leslie Robertson

The desire of the righteous shall be granted.' FIRST.
— from Works of John Bunyan — Complete by John Bunyan

long and dismal has been the night of thy affliction: but now rise and sing, for thy "light is breaking forth, and the dawn of thy redemption is brightening around."
— from The Life of General Francis Marion by M. L. (Mason Locke) Weems