It was not long before the other passengers followed her: throughout the afternoon I remained on deck alone.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

They leave on the left a deep gulf, at the bottom of which Nicomedia was seated, the Imperial residence of Diocletian; and they pass the small islands of Cyzicus and Proconnesus before they cast anchor at Gallipoli; where the sea, which separates Asia from Europe, is again contracted into a narrow channel.
— 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

Love is like a tree; it sprouts forth of itself, sends its roots out deeply through our whole being, and often continues to flourish greenly over a heart in ruins.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

The gross fact of water rising when the suction valve is worked is resolved or discriminated into a number of independent variables, some of which had never before been observed or even thought of in connection with the fact.
— from How We Think by John Dewey

Popular liberty might then have escaped the indelible reproach of decreeing to the same citizens the hemlock on one day and statues on the next.
— from The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton

But if haply they do leave me a morsel of food it reeks of decay and the stench is unendurable, nor could any mortal bear to draw near even for a moment, no, not if his heart were wrought of adamant.
— from The Argonautica by Rhodius Apollonius

But the mingled reality and mystery of the whole show, the influence upon me of the poetry, the lights, the music, the company, the smooth stupendous changes of glittering and brilliant scenery, were so dazzling, and opened up such illimitable regions of delight, that when I came out into the rainy street, at twelve o’clock at night, I felt as if I had come from the clouds, where I had been leading a romantic life for ages, to a bawling, splashing, link-lighted, umbrella-struggling, hackney-coach-jostling, patten-clinking, muddy, miserable world.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

H2 anchor X. Of Catulus, not to contemn any friend's expostulation, though unjust, but to strive to reduce him to his former disposition: freely and heartily to speak well of all my masters upon any occasion, as it is reported of Domitius, and Athenodotus: and to love my children with true affection.
— from Meditations by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius

But, now, thou thinkest it fine to shine in raiment of divers colours; yet—if, indeed, there is any pleasure in the sight of such things—it is the texture or the artist's skill which I shall admire.
— from The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius

It was evidently hopeless to expect a favourable change in the weather for some hours at least, and to attempt any longer to maintain the boat’s position, in the face of an increasing gale, was to expose her and those in her to imminent risk of destruction; he therefore decided to watch his opportunity and seize the first favourable moment for bearing up and running before it.
— from The Pirate Island: A Story of the South Pacific by Harry Collingwood

Pores irregular, roundish, of different sizes.
— from Report on the Radiolaria Collected by H.M.S. Challenger During the Years 1873-1876, Second Part: Subclass Osculosa; Index Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger During the Years 1873-76, Vol. XVIII by Ernst Haeckel

The locks of the hair are flying abroad in all directions, insomuch that it is not a superficial view that can discover what the object is which is represented, or distinguish those flying locks from the features, as they are all of the same colour, of equal solidity, and consequently project with equal force.
— from Fifteen Discourses by Reynolds, Joshua, Sir

I remember one day, when she had drawn her bow to shoot a dove that sat pluming its wings on a bough, she relaxed the string and returned the arrow to her sheaf.
— from The Admirable Lady Biddy Fane Her Surprising Curious Adventures In Strange Parts & Happy Deliverance From Pirates, Battle, Captivity, & Other Terrors; Together With Divers Romantic & Moving Accidents As Set Forth By Benet Pengilly (Her Companion In Misfortune & Joy), & Now First Done Into Print by Frank Barrett

In regiments or detachments it fought in Tangier, in Flanders, and in the West Indies; it did marines' duty in four great naval actions, one of them the fiercest ever fought by the English, and it suppressed an insurrection in Scotland and a rebellion in Virginia.
— from A History of the British Army, Vol. 1 First Part—to the Close of the Seven Years' War by Fortescue, J. W. (John William), Sir

It was only to conquer this independent resistance of discipline that punishment or force was necessary.
— from Detailed Minutiae of Soldier life in the Army of Northern Virginia, 1861-1865 by Carlton McCarthy

I said I rested our defence entirely on the difference between Primacy and Monarchy.
— from Journal in France in 1845 and 1848 with Letters from Italy in 1847 Of Things and Persons Concerning the Church and Education by T. W. (Thomas William) Allies

Instruction , right of debate on, 138 .
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 1 (of 16) by United States. Congress

I remember one day an officer called, and before he was out of sight I had his card converted into a teaspoon.
— from A Week at Waterloo in 1815 Lady De Lancey's Narrative: Being an Account of How She Nursed Her Husband, Colonel Sir William Howe De Lancey, Quartermaster-General of the Army, Mortally Wounded in the Great Battle by De Lancey, Magdalene, Lady

I remained on deck watching the schooner, for there is something very attractive to my eye in the movements of another vessel at sea.
— from My First Cruise, and Other stories by William Henry Giles Kingston