In this view, the character of Belisarius may be deservedly placed above the heroes of the ancient republics.
— 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

These Sultans of the fastnesses were turbaned with tumbled volumes of cloud, which shredded away from time to time and drifted off fringed and torn, trailing their continents of shadow after them; and catching presently on an intercepting peak, wrapped it about and brooded there—then shredded away again and left the purple peak, as they had left the purple domes, downy and white with new-laid snow.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain

All the demi-gods had their amorous adventures; the most valiant were always the most passionate and the happiest.
— from The Satyricon — Complete by Petronius Arbiter

Perhaps, after they have wearied more than injured each other, they will discover the nothingness of their cause of quarrel and part good friends.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

The Houyhnhnms use the hollow part, between the pastern and the hoof of their fore-foot, as we do our hands, and this with greater dexterity than I could at first imagine.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift

A reenforcement of Greeks was surprised and cut in pieces on the sea-shore; but the fortifications of Tripoli resisted the first assaults; and the Saracens were tempted by the approach of the praefect Gregory 141 to relinquish the labors of the siege for the perils and the hopes of a decisive action.
— 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

They say that he was always a miser and a usurer; that his journey to Spain was undertaken with very different motives from those pretended by the alchymists; that, in fact, he went to collect debts due from Jews in that country to their brethren in Paris, and that he charged a commission of fully cent per cent in consideration of the difficulty of collecting and the dangers of the road; that when he possessed thousands, he lived upon almost nothing; and was the general money-lender, at enormous profits, to all the dissipated young men at the French court.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

Charles, already disposed by the evidence, of his senses to think my pretences to virginity not entirely apocryphal, smothers me with kisses, begs me, in the-name of love, to have a little patience, and that he wilt be as tender of hurting me as he would be of himself..
— from Memoirs of Fanny Hill A New and Genuine Edition from the Original Text (London, 1749) by John Cleland

Again, in the line, "This is the forest primeval; the murmuring pines and the hemlocks," [ 109 ] it will be noticed that, beginning with the first, each accented syllable is followed by two unaccented syllables, except in the last foot, which is a trochee .
— from Elementary Guide to Literary Criticism by F. V. N. (Franklin Verzelius Newton) Painter

he was in Gibraltar the year I was born I bet he found lilies there too where he planted the tree he planted more than that in his time he might have planted me too if hed come a bit sooner then I wouldnt be here as I am he ought to chuck that Freeman with the paltry few shillings he knocks out of it and go into an office or something where hed get regular pay or a bank where they could put him up on a throne to count the money all the day of course he prefers plottering about the house so you cant stir with him any side whats your programme today I wish hed even smoke a pipe like father to get the smell of a man or pretending to be mooching about for advertisements when he could have been in Mr Cuffes still only for what he did then sending me to try and patch it up I could have got him promoted there to be the manager he gave me a great mirada once or twice first he was as stiff as the mischief really and truly
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

As it was growing late and the moon setting, we thought of retiring, when the sound of a boat approaching the island—a very unusual and dangerous proceeding at that hour—roused James, and seeing only a woman in the boat, he left us and went down to the wharf near his cottage.
— from The Golden South: Memories of Australian Home Life from 1843 to 1888 by Kathleen Lambert

On the other hand, the militia included in their ranks most of those who had taken part in the murderous expedition of two months before; this fact, and their general character, made it certain that the peaceable and inoffensive Indians would, if encountered, be slaughtered as pitilessly as their hostile brethren.
— from The Winning of the West, Volume 2 From the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, 1777-1783 by Theodore Roosevelt

An experienced setter is essential in a factory if the pots are to have every chance in the fire, for all kilns vary and have their hot and cool corners.
— from Pottery, for Artists, Craftsmen & Teachers by George James Cox

And as soon as ever the ice shall have melted, and the rivers be flowing, and the land have dried sufficiently to be workable, the spade will begin its task in kitchen and flower garden, and the plough and the harrow their tasks in the field; until everywhere there will be tilling and sowing and planting.
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

But before this era of generosity ended, probably the railroads had received more public aid than has ever been given to any other form of industry in private hands.
— from The Principles of Economics, with Applications to Practical Problems by Frank A. (Frank Albert) Fetter