And upon Cicero’s lamenting in some trial the miserable condition of the times, he the very same day, by nine o’clock, transferred his enemy, Publius Clodius, from a patrician to a plebeian family; a change which he had long solicited in vain 46 .
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

A more enormous pair did my eyes never behold, nor of a worse colour, flagging, soft, and most lovingly contiguous: yet such as they were, this great beef-eater seemed to paw them with a most unenviable lust, seeking in vain to confine or cover one of them with a hand scarce less than a shoulder of mutton.
— from Memoirs of Fanny Hill A New and Genuine Edition from the Original Text (London, 1749) by John Cleland

Do you find the prisoner guilty or not guilty?” “Not guilty, my lord,” said I. “ Vox populi, vox Dei .
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

I had only a limited personal acquaintance with any of the Senators, but had met Mr. Corwin quite often at Mr. Ewing's house, and I also knew that he had been extremely friendly to my father in his lifetime; so I ventured to send in to him my card, "W. T. S., First-Lieutenant, Third Artillery."
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

i. 10,) confounded them.”— L. & S. in voc.
— from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius

The Crown Prince and Princess spent the spring of 1875 in Italy, including a long stay in Venice.
— from The Empress Frederick: a memoir by Anonymous

Then the mirrors, Stark and brilliant in the sunshine, Blank as the desert, Blank as the Sphinx, Winking golden eyes in the twinkles of light, Silent, immutable, vacuous infinity, Illimitable capacity for absorption, Absorbing nothing.
— from Precipitations by Evelyn Scott

His life was to be taken for that only, and he no longer set its value at naught nor wished it over.
— from In the Palace of the King: A Love Story of Old Madrid by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford

When the seven specimens of maidenhood, from among whom he was expected to make his choice, were at length seated in various constrained attitudes about the room, a dead silence fell, broken only by an occasional nervous remark from Mrs. McNally, and a monosyllabic response from the wooer.
— from North, South and Over the Sea by M. E. Francis

In vain the inspiring sea shouts to this languid soul, in vain the heavens strive with its weakness; it still persists in regretting and seeks a refuge in oblivion from the pangs of present woe.
— from The Story of My Life With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy by Helen Keller

Again the voice at the door: “No, sir; the vessel has no wireless apparatus, and the first land station is Vloclavek.”
— from Our Young Aeroplane Scouts in Russia; or, Lost on the Frozen Steppes by Horace Porter