The vast countries which the Roman conquerors had united under the same simple form of administration, were imperceptibly crumbled into minute fragments; till at length the whole empire was distributed into one hundred and sixteen provinces, each of which supported an expensive and splendid establishment.
— 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 vessels out of which the warriors ate their food were commonly small bowls of wood or birch bark, with marks to distinguish the two sides; in marching from home the Indians invariably drank out of one side of the bowl, and in returning they drank out of the other.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

2. Rotam in medio flumine constituunt, cui ex pellibus animalium consutos uteres appendunt, hi dum rota movetur, aquam per canales, &c. 588 .
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

What art thou thrusting that thief-catcher into my face for, man?
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville

Their greatest enclosure and that one which has most name and is most frequented is called the Hellenion, and this was established by the following cities in common:—of the Ionians Chios, Teos, Phocaia, Clazomenai, of the Dorians Rhodes, Cnidos, Halicarnassos, Phaselis, and of the Aiolians Mytilene alone.
— from The History of Herodotus — Volume 1 by Herodotus

He will remember always that beauty exists in many forms.
— from The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry by Walter Pater

If ever a girl had a background, Morton College is Madeline Fejevary Morton's background.
— from Plays by Susan Glaspell

"But I don't believe in mines full of diamonds.
— from A Little Princess Being the whole story of Sara Crewe now told for the first time by Frances Hodgson Burnett

"He is my friend," he said at length.
— from The King in Yellow by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers

One interesting day in May found us at Malmaison, the country house of Napoleon and Josephine.
— from An Autobiography by Elizabeth (Elizabeth Southerden Thompson) Butler

As I painfully turned my head a drop of blood came trickling down into my eyes from a cut in my forehead; I saw, however, that the door was bolted.
— from Dead Man's Rock by Arthur Quiller-Couch

Its marvellous flint daggers and hammer-axes were widely distributed and excite our admiration to-day.
— from The New Stone Age in Northern Europe by John M. (John Mason) Tyler

she said, looking in my face.
— from Aylwin by Theodore Watts-Dunton

[272] Lord William Brounker (c. 1620-1684), the first president of the Royal Society, is best known in mathematics for his contributions to continued fractions.
— from A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume I by Augustus De Morgan

Yet when I have said it, my heart is sad for the great wrong that I must for ever endure.”
— from Bacon and Shakespeare by Albert Frederick Calvert

The French, and Italian, and Russian woman, &c., writes on her card Madame this or that, born so and so; all which tells the whole history of her individuality Many French women, in signing their names, prefix those of their own family to those of their husbands, a sensible and simple usage that we are glad to see is beginning to obtain among ourselves.
— from The Crater; Or, Vulcan's Peak: A Tale of the Pacific by James Fenimore Cooper

This is my first experience on the plains."
— from The Pony Rider Boys in Texas; Or, The Veiled Riddle of the Plains by Frank Gee Patchin

"Oh, tell me where is my fath-er!"
— from The Poor Little Rich Girl by Eleanor Gates

When I copy a page I earn ten cents, the price I myself fix.
— from Balsamo, the Magician; or, The Memoirs of a Physician by Alexandre Dumas