He had preceded us by some few minutes, and had already donned his long dressing-gown, by which I was certain that he had at the same time doffed his pantaloons.
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous

The first is certainly a necessary constituent part of it, but in the same way as bravery, which is a natural gift in some men, may arise in a soldier as a part of an Army from habit and custom, so with him it must also have a different direction from that which it has with others.
— from On War — Volume 1 by Carl von Clausewitz

I tried the wrong side of the hall for my candle and the matches, and had a doubt of which landing my room might be on.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

Licinius afterwards persecuting the christians, Constantine the Great marched against him, and defeated him: he was afterwards slain by his own soldiers.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

Whoever therefore reproaches Alexander as a bad man, let him do so; but let him first not only bring before his mind all his actions deserving reproach, but also gather 426 into one view all his deeds of every kind.
— from The Anabasis of Alexander or, The History of the Wars and Conquests of Alexander the Great by Arrian

Moodie helped Malcolm, as he always did, very largely, and the other covered his plate with a portion of peas and potatoes, when, lo and behold!
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

I had attained, perhaps, that degree of reputation at which prudence, or certainly timidity, would have made a halt, and discontinued efforts by which I was far more likely to diminish my fame than to increase it.
— from The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott

In all his works, Muratori approves himself a diligent and laborious writer, who aspires above the prejudices of a Catholic priest.
— 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

Fain would I say, “Forgive my foul offence,” Fain promise never more to disobey; But, should my Author health again dispense,
— from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns

I should put myself against half a dozen men, should I?
— from Every Man in His Humor by Ben Jonson

They soon left the village behind them, and plunged into a wood, which, stretching for miles across hill and dale, was known to be a favourite haunt of smugglers.
— from Soap-Bubble Stories For Children by Fanny Barry

It shows invariably a want of sufficient confidence, and that want of confidence, instead of being diminished after marriage, is liable to increase, until by the aid of the imagination and wrong interpretation the home is made a hell and divorce a necessity.
— from Searchlights on Health: The Science of Eugenics by B. G. (Benjamin Grant) Jefferis

I don't know where to go or what to do, but I expect you to lead me,' an' he always did."
— from Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman by Sarah H. (Sarah Hopkins) Bradford

On the wall of a passage adjoining the kitchen is a singular painting, supposed to be emblematical of a "trusty servant", compounded of a man, a hog, a deer, and an ass.
— from Winchester by Sidney Heath

Salmasius sometimes reproaches Milton as being but a puny piece of man; an homunculus, a dwarf deprived of the human figure, a bloodless being, composed of nothing but skin and bone; a contemptible pedagogue, fit only to flog his boys: and, rising into a poetic frenzy, applies to him the words of Virgil, " Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum ."
— from Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 by Isaac Disraeli

I am scribbling at the rate of 365 miles an hour, and don't care a jot whether it is good writing or not.
— from My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin