I was given a pretty room on the ground floor, opening upon the gardens of Pasean, and I enjoyed its comforts without caring to know who my neighbours were.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Say likewise, my Twemlow, whether it be the happier lot to be a poor relation of the great, or to stand in the wintry slush giving the hack horses to drink out of the shallow tub at the coach-stand, into which thou has so nearly set thy uncertain foot.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

We stand in awe of this powerful realm of the great cosmic stupidity, for in most instances we learn to know it when it falls down upon the other world, that of aims and intentions, like a slate from a roof, always overwhelming some beautiful purpose of ours.
— from The Dawn of Day by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

It would be an object of curiosity to ascertain the amount of the Roman revenue in the reign of Augustus; but such a problem, even with respect to contemporary nations, cannot be elucidated without access to the public registers of their governments; and in regard to an ancient monarchy, the investigation is impracticable.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

Nevertheless, amongst the good men of that party (for I do not speak of those who only make a pretence of it, either to execute their own particular revenges or to gratify their avarice, or to conciliate the favour of princes, but of those who engage in the quarrel out of true zeal to religion and a holy desire to maintain the peace and government of their country), of these, I say, we see many whom passion transports beyond the bounds of reason, and sometimes inspires with counsels that are unjust and violent, and, moreover, rash.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

The beneficial, though precarious, reunion of the greater part of Gaul and Spain, was the effect of persuasion, as well as of force; 47 and the independent Bagaudae, who had escaped, or resisted, the oppression, of former reigns, were disposed to confide in the virtues of Majorian.
— 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

In any case, the Jews, who mixed up the mysteries and absurdities of the Talmud with the ancient laws and numerous rules of the religion of their ancestors, found in the practice of their national customs, and in the celebration of their mysterious ceremonies, the sweetest emotions, especially when they could devote themselves to them in the peaceful retirement of the Ghetto; for, in all the countries in which they lived scattered and isolated amongst Christians, they were careful to conceal their worship and to conduct their ceremonial as secretly as possible.
— from Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period by P. L. Jacob

The ingenuous Alice gazed at his free air and proud carriage, as she would have looked upon some precious relic of the Grecian chisel, to which life had been imparted by the intervention of a miracle; while Heyward, though accustomed to see the perfection of form which abounds among the uncorrupted natives, openly expressed his admiration at such an unblemished specimen of the noblest proportions of man.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper

The extracts from the poetry of Governor Wolcott are very favorable to the poetic reputation of the governor.
— from The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, May 1844 Volume 23, Number 5 by Various

At evening Peter walked in the streets and quadrangles, getting precious glimpses of an interior studiously lit, with groups, as he fancied them, of sober scholars in grave debate upon their studies of the morning; or, perhaps, in pleasant reminiscence of their games of the afternoon.
— from Peter Paragon: A Tale of Youth by John Palmer

In the blinking light of the torch, the strength of which was dimmed in the vastness of the cavern, the isolated rock, standing as it did under the rocky canopy whose glistening surface sent down a patchy reflex of the glare, seemed like a throne.
— from The Mystery of the Sea by Bram Stoker

"Of the personal relations of this great man, which gave rise to the long career of public service in which twenty years of my own life has been engaged, it becomes me not to speak.
— from Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams Sixth President of the Unied States With the Eulogy Delivered Before the Legislature of New York by William Henry Seward

Bennington had knocked him down again, and this time the puddler remained on the ground, insensible.
— from Half a Rogue by Harold MacGrath

The large account of Roman deities furnished by Saint Augustine, in his ‘ De Civitate Dei ,’ constitutes for us the principal representation of the great work of [289] Varro, now lost, on the ‘ Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum .’
— from Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 1 of 3 I. Prolegomena II. Achæis; or, the Ethnology of the Greek Races by W. E. (William Ewart) Gladstone

I next assured him that he might have the most perfect reliance on the gratitude and friendship of my brother, and be certain of receiving as large a share of power and authority as such a service done by a person of his rank merited.
— from Memoirs and Historical Chronicles of the Courts of Europe Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, Queen of France, Wife of Henri IV; of Madame de Pompadour of the Court of Louis XV; and of Catherine de Medici, Queen of France, Wife of Henri II by Mme. Du Hausset

Nearly all people have carved or painted representations of their gods, and these representations were, by the lower classes, generally treated as the real gods, and to these images and idols they addressed prayers and offered sacrifice.
— from The Gods From 'The Gods and Other Lectures' by Robert Green Ingersoll