If thy cruel wife leave no region free to Teucrians, by the smoking ruins of desolated Troy, O father, I beseech thee, grant Ascanius unhurt retreat from arms, grant me my child's life.
— from The Aeneid of Virgil by Virgil

He ate in the same open air; that is, his two only meals,—breakfast and dinner: supper he never touched; nor reaped his beard; which darkly grew all gnarled, as unearthed roots of trees blown over, which still grow idly on at naked base, though perished in the upper verdure.
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville

Poverty treads upon the heels of great and unexpected riches.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

His brother bumpkins, and the other yeomen and country-puts thereabouts, perceiving his good fortune, were not a little amazed, insomuch that their former pity of poor Tom was soon changed into an envy of his so great and unexpected rise; and as they could not for their souls devise how this came about, they made it their business to pry up and down, and lay their heads together, to inquire, seek, and inform themselves by what means, in what place, on what day, what hour, how, why, and wherefore, he had come by this great treasure.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

The nymph's fair head a veil transparent graced, Her swelling loins a radiant zone embraced With flowers of gold; an under robe, unbound, In snowy waves flow'd glittering on the ground.
— from The Odyssey by Homer

A general silence ensued after he was seated: his appearance, from different motives, gave an universal restraint to every body.
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney

As the Romans were pressed by a victorious enemy, they gradually, and unskilfully, retired towards the Chersonesus of Thrace; and that narrow peninsula, the last extremity of the land, was marked by their third, and irreparable, defeat.
— 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

5. Instance in keeping Compacts That men should keep their compacts is certainly a great and undeniable rule in morality.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 1 and 2 by John Locke

He developed an infallible gust and unerring relish of what was genuinely Johnsonian in speech, writing, or action; and his own account leads to the inference that he discarded, as worthless, masses of diverting material which would have tempted a less scrupulous writer beyond resistance.
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson Abridged and edited, with an introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood by James Boswell

One morning, when she had gone, as usual, rather lightly clothed, it suddenly began to snow, and as Charles was watching the weather from the window, he caught sight of Monsieur Bournisien in the chaise of Monsieur Tuvache, who was driving him to Rouen.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

[Pg xv] Knights of the Sword, and has been described as a country with a Finnish population and a German aristocracy under Russian rule.
— from The Hero of Esthonia and Other Studies in the Romantic Literature of That Country by W. F. (William Forsell) Kirby

But sometime on an afternoon in spring, When dandelions dot the fields with gold, And under rustling shade a few weeks old 'Tis sweet to stroll and hear the bluebirds sing, Do you, blond head, whom beauty and the power Of being young and winsome have prepared For life's last privilege that really pays, Make the companion of an idle hour These relics of the time when I too fared Across the sweet fifth lustrum of my days.
— from Poems by Alan Seeger

These things were not done by honorable Confederate soldiers, but by irresponsible home guards and undisciplined rowdies.
— from With Fire and Sword by S. H. M. (Samuel Hawkins Marshall) Byers

In the summer, Mr. Galbraith, all unannounced, reappeared at Glashruach, but so changed that, startled at the sight of him, Ginevra stopped midway in her advance to greet him.
— from Sir Gibbie by George MacDonald

Suddenly he awoke, and dismal groans and unearthly rumblings struck his terrified ear.
— from Eventide A Series of Tales and Poems by Effie Afton

Mark this statement, gentle and ungentle readers!
— from Glimpses of Indian Birds by Douglas Dewar

Great and unconcealed rejoicing among the Boers took place; work was suspended, all heads were put together to make capital out of Great Britain's misfortunes.
— from South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 1 (of 8) From the Foundation of Cape Colony to the Boer Ultimatum of 9th Oct. 1899 by Louis Creswicke