Think for me, my dear lord: and if I have deserved well, let me return; if ill, for Heaven's sake supersede me, for I cannot exist in this state.
— from The Life of Horatio, Lord Nelson by Robert Southey

She said the ant-hill was the loftiest thing in the world, and yet close to the mound stood a tall tree, which no one could deny was loftier, much loftier, but no mention was made of the tree.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

Then, casting a glance on the handsome young man, who was scarcely twenty-five years of age, and whom he was leaving in his gore, deprived of sense and perhaps dead, he gave a sigh for that unaccountable destiny which leads men to destroy each other for the interests of people who are strangers to them and who often do not even know that they exist.
— from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

The merit and misfortunes of Ali and his descendants will lead me to anticipate, in this place, the series of the Saracen caliphs, a title which describes the commanders of the faithful as the vicars and successors of the apostle of God.
— 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

She should also be beautiful, of a good disposition, with lucky marks on her body, and with good hair, nails, teeth, ears, eyes, and breasts, neither more nor less than they ought to be, and no one of them entirely wanting, and not troubled with a sickly body.
— from The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana Translated From the Sanscrit in Seven Parts With Preface, Introduction and Concluding Remarks by Vatsyayana

Of one ſwift houres quarter, with my wife, He will depart with (let mee ſee) this cloake here
— from The Devil is an Ass by Ben Jonson

I was punished indeed in the offending part; the desire was left me, but not the possibility of satisfying the passion.
— from Letters of Abelard and Heloise To which is prefix'd a particular account of their lives, amours, and misfortunes by Héloïse

You know it was neither zeal nor devotion which led me to the cloister.
— from Letters of Abelard and Heloise To which is prefix'd a particular account of their lives, amours, and misfortunes by Héloïse

President McKinley's diplomatic court had become the largest in the world, and the diplomatic relations required far more work than ever before, while the staff of the Department was little more efficient, and the friction in the Senate had become coagulated.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

It is the vision of my beautiful Mater Dolorosa of San Donato, which leaveth me not."
— from A Golden Book of Venice by Turnbull, Lawrence, Mrs.

I think Captain DeVries will let me have it.
— from A Song of a Single Note: A Love Story by Amelia E. Barr

There was a short struggle, but soon the rescued Danes were able to aid their deliverers, and the Cornish guards were all slain; the men of King Alef, never very zealous for the cause of Haco, fled, and the Danes were left masters of the field.
— from The Age of Chivalry by Thomas Bulfinch

No, Robert Marshall was actually a New Yorker, his dad was Louis Marshall, a partner of Samuel Untermyer, outstanding corporation lawyer in New York.
— from Investigation of Communist activities in Seattle, Wash., area. Hearings, Part 3 by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities

She assumed that Dingan would leave Mitiahwe, for he would hear the voices of his people calling far away, even as the red man who went East into the great cities heard the prairies and the mountains and the rivers and his own people calling, and came back, and put off the clothes of civilisation, and donned his buckskins again, and sat in the Medicine Man’s tent, and heard the spirits speak to him through the mist and smoke of the sacred fire.
— from Northern Lights, Complete by Gilbert Parker

Dryden, who learned much from him; Addison, who uses him as a dreadful example in his essay on mixed wit; and Pope, who speaks of him with a traditional respect, all testify to this rapid loss of his hold upon the community of readers.
— from The Connecticut Wits, and Other Essays by Henry A. (Henry Augustin) Beers

Most recent read I did was last month, of the Gutenberg version of "The Insidious Dr Fu Manchu", a fiction novel.
— from Project Gutenberg Newsletters 1999 Thirteen Letters: December 1998 to December 1999 by Michael Hart

The scenery was really grand, for below were the green canes waving like billows in the wind, while upon either side of the avenue cut for the road, towered mighty cypresses and gum-trees, almost every branch draped with long moss.
— from The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Vol. 2 (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