Philip, his successor in the praefecture, was an Arab by birth, and consequently, in the earlier part of his life, a robber by profession.
— 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 losses are represented by the rest of the animal world, and even by the vegetable world, at least in what these have that is positive and above the accidents of evolution.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

He scarce had ceased when the superior Fiend Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield, Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, Behind him cast.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton

You have grown abominably lazy, you like gossip, and waste time on frivolous things, you are contented to be petted and admired by silly people, instead of being loved and respected by wise ones.
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

He nodded in answer to Balashëv’s low and respectful bow, and coming up to him at once began speaking like a man who values every moment of his time and does not condescend to prepare what he has to say but is sure he will always say the right thing and say it well.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

All economical government is lodged originally in the husband and wife, the executive part being in the husband; both have their privileges secured to them by law and reason; but will any man infer from the husband being invested with the executive power, that the wife is deprived of her share, and that she has no remedy left but preces and lacrymae, or an appeal to a supreme court of judicature?
— from The History of John Bull by John Arbuthnot

The story gives an account of the life and adventures of Publius Cornelius Lentulus, a Roman boy, who fought in Cæsar's campaigns and shared in his triumph.
— from Latin for Beginners by Benjamin L. (Benjamin Leonard) D'Ooge

Those scars, less honourable perhaps than those which are won in the service of Mars, being obtained through pleasure, ought not to leave any regret behind.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

I am compelled to hold onto the mast, which bends like a reed beneath the violence of the storm, to which none ever before seen by mariners bore any resemblance.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

And the result is such ruin as this, the Lloyd "home-place":—great waving oaks, a spread of lawn, myrtles and chestnuts, all ragged and wild; a solitary gate-post standing where once was a castle entrance; an old rusty anvil lying amid rotting bellows and wood in the ruins of a blacksmith shop; a wide rambling old mansion, brown and dingy, filled now with the grandchildren of the slaves who once waited on its tables; while the family of the master has dwindled to two lone women, who live in Macon and feed hungrily off the remnants of an earldom.
— from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois

Podophyllum peltatum is variously known as may-apple, Indian apple, hog apple, wild lemon and raccoon berry in reference to the fruit; duck's foot (German, Entenfuss) in reference to the form of the leaf; wild jalap in reference to its medicinal properties, which are similar to that of jalap.
— from Birds and Nature, Vol. 08, No. 5, December 1900 Illustrated by Color Photography by Various

It slipped like a river, bearing upon its balmy surface the promise of asylum, of sleep, of plenty, through the primitive, ruthless forest, which in turn pressed upon it everywhere the menace of its oblivion, its fierce, strangling life.
— from Mountain Blood: A Novel by Joseph Hergesheimer

Long-limbed men strode miles and leagues after Rauten, but his spoor never ended.
— from The Trail of the Elk by Mikkjel Fønhus

“Why he behaved like a regular beast.”
— from Glasses by Henry James

If I must speak of women I will mention two; here is one of them: I ask what would be expected of a poor sewing-girl, young and pretty, about eighteen, with a romantic affair on her hands that is purely a question of love; with little knowledge of life and no idea of morals; eternally sewing near a window before which processions were not allowed to pass by order of the police, but near which a dozen young women prowled who were licensed and recognized by these same police; what could you expect of her, when after wearying her hands and eyes all day long on a dress or a hat, she leans out of that window as night falls?
— from The Confession of a Child of the Century — Volume 1 by Alfred de Musset

The Emperor had forgotten that Bismarck was a gentleman before he was a Minister, and that a Prussian nobleman could not be treated like a Russian boyar .
— from Bismarck and the Foundation of the German Empire by James Wycliffe Headlam

Doubtless, they are represented also as dwelling in the hills, lakes, and rivers, but still the connection between the great raths and cairns and the gods is never really forgotten.
— from Early Bardic Literature, Ireland. by Standish O'Grady

Till then you may as well be silent, and behave like a reasonable being."
— from A Secret of the Sea: A Novel. Vol. 3 (of 3) by T. W. (Thomas Wilkinson) Speight

A prospect more bleak, more desolate, and more barren, it would be impossible to' conceive—a wide river with low and reedy banks, moving sluggishly on its yellow current, between broad tracts of bog or callow meadow-land; no trace of cultivation, not even a tree was to be seen.
— from Jack Hinton: The Guardsman by Charles James Lever

The solid earth itself, as represented by its loftiest [Pg 452] summits which pierce the air; vegetable life, as represented by the two classes of fruit-bearing and forest trees; animals in their orders, wild and domestic; the lowest worm that crawls and the light-winged bird that soars,—these all have voices to praise God.
— from The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 3 Psalms XC.-CL. by Alexander Maclaren