Mortified as I was at his behavior, and resolved as I had been to dismiss him when I entered my office, nevertheless I strangely felt something superstitious knocking at my heart, and forbidding me to carry out my purpose, and denouncing me for a villain if I dared to breathe one bitter word against this forlornest of mankind.
— from The Piazza Tales by Herman Melville

Monuments remaining there: Robert Gabeter, esquire, mayor of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1310; John Gisors; William Tiligham; John Stanley; Lord Strange, eldest son of the Earl of Derby, 1503; Nicholas Statham; Robert de Luton, 1361; Richard Lions, a famous merchant of wines, and a lapidary, sometime one of the sheriffs, beheaded in Cheape by Wat Tyler and other rebels in the year 1381; his picture on his gravestone, very fair and large, is with his hair rounded by his ears, and curled; a little beard forked; a gown, girt to him down to his feet, of branched damask, wrought with the likeness of flowers; a large purse on his right side, hanging in a belt from his left shoulder; a plain hood about his neck covering his shoulders, and hanging back behind him.
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

Thus the emergence of arts out of instincts is the token and exact measure of nature's success and of mortal happiness.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

As, however, all was said under the guise of giving good advice, Cortes answered them very mildly, as nearly as possible in these words: "Much of what you have been representing to me has not escaped my own notice; but, what I have seen above all things, and of which I have gained the most convincing proofs, is this, that the whole world could not produce Spaniards who are so brave, and fight so courageously, and who could bear hardships as well as we do.
— from The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 1 (of 2) Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain. by Bernal Díaz del Castillo

Seven thousand Goths, the relics of the war, defended the fortress of Campsa till the ensuing spring; and every messenger of Narses announced the reduction of the Italian cities, whose names were corrupted by the ignorance or vanity of the Greeks.
— 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

Once he stayed to meet me and hardly did he escape my onset: now, however, since I am in no mood to fight him, I will to-morrow offer sacrifice to Jove and to all the gods; I will draw my ships into the water and then victual them duly; to-morrow morning, if you care to look, you will see my ships on the Hellespont, and my men rowing out to sea with might and main.
— from The Iliad by Homer

Nouns of the fourth declension are either masculine or neuter.
— from Latin for Beginners by Benjamin L. (Benjamin Leonard) D'Ooge

To intercept them on their return, the Marquis reports that he has stationed "a bark, some canoes and twenty good men" at the river communicating from Lake Erie with that of Ontario near Niagara, by which place the English who ascended Lake Erie must of necessity pass on their return home with their peltries.
— from Toronto of Old Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario by Henry Scadding

For all wise men know that it is not riches, nor material possessions nor great territories that make either men or nations noble.
— from Lafayette, We Come! The Story of How a Young Frenchman Fought for Liberty in America and How America Now Fights for Liberty in France by Rupert Sargent Holland

It behoves the people of England to consider how the House of Commons under the operation of these examples must of necessity be constituted.
— from Thoughts on the Present Discontents, and Speeches by Edmund Burke

Provided they read a certain number of serious books, they see no reason why they should not read any number of superficial or useless books, or any amount of ephemeral magazine or newspaper literature.
— from Thinking as a Science by Henry Hazlitt

Except for the trip to Dallas, Texas, on November 9, 1963, which I have described above, Lee Oswald remained in my home from the time of his arrival, the late afternoon of November 8, 1963, until he departed for Dallas, Texas, in the early morning of November 12, 1963.
— from Warren Commission (11 of 26): Hearings Vol. XI (of 15) by United States. Warren Commission

From early morning our neighbours would drop in one by one to have their bath.
— from My Reminiscences by Rabindranath Tagore

Also it is tyme to set out the shepefolde in May, and to sette it vppon the rye-grounde, if he haue any, and to flyte it euery mornynge or nyght: and in the mornynge, whan he cometh to his folde, let not his 4 [Fol. 15 b .] shepe out anone, but reyse theym vp, and let them stande stylle good season, that they may donge and See if the sheep have maggots. pysse.
— from The Book of Husbandry by Anthony Fitzherbert

The Earl's mind, already embittered by the scene with his sons, was chafed yet more by the King's unloving coldness; for it is natural to man, however worldly, to feel affection for those he has served, and Godwin had won Edward his crown; nor, despite his warlike though bloodless return, could even monk or Norman, in counting up the old Earl's crimes, say that he had ever failed in personal respect to the King he had made; nor over-great for subject, as the Earl's power must be confessed, will historian now be found to say that it had not been well for Saxon England if Godwin had found more favour with his King, and monk and Norman less.
— from Harold : the Last of the Saxon Kings — Volume 05 by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron