[ This judgment is rather severe: besides the physicians, astronomers, and grammarians, among whom there were some very distinguished men, there were still, under Hadrian, Suetonius, Florus, Plutarch; under the Antonines, Arrian, Pausanias, Appian, Marcus Aurelius himself, Sextus Empiricus, &c. Jurisprudence gained much by the labors of Salvius Julianus, Julius Celsus, Sex. Pomponius, Caius, and others.—G. from
— 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 seats were filled with a respectful audience, and the ladies and gentlemen of the parish, under the auspices of their vicar, sang, or recited, or imitated the drawing of a champagne cork.
— from A Room with a View by E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster

For my part, up to a few years ago, I could even boast that I had entered into a regular scientific dispute with only one scholar (Lowenfeld, of Munich).
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud

Mr. Ferry's face paled, as bowing low, with no word, he received it, and it thus became a part of the day's proceedings; the ladies turned, scattering printed copies as they deliberately passed up the aisle and off the platform.
— from The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years by Ida Husted Harper

Then, when he was nigh unto death, lo! through the savage gloom there came to him a stately maiden, and took him by the hand and led him on through devious paths, unknown to any man, until upon the darkness of the wood there dawned a light such as the light of day was unto but as a little lamp unto the sun; and, in that wondrous light, our way-worn knight saw as in a dream a vision, and so glorious, so fair the vision seemed, that of his bleeding wounds he thought no more, but stood as one entranced, whose joy is deep as is the sea, whereof no man can tell the depth.
— from Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome

The charge of this year’s work of the Mole will be L13,000; besides L1000 a-year to my Lord Peterborough as a pension, and the fortifications and contingencys, which puts us to a great stand, and so unsettled what to do therein we rose, and I to see my Lord Sandwich, whom I found merry at cards, and so by coach home, and after supper a little to my office and so home and to bed.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

It obtained, indeed, a success at home and abroad such as was achieved by no other English poem until the appearance of Childe Harold .
— from The Rape of the Lock and Other Poems by Alexander Pope

Why, Goneril would have blushed to practise upon the abdicated king at this rate, and the she-wolf Regan not have endured to play the pranks upon his fled wits, which thou hast made thy Quixote suffer in Duchesses' halls, and at the hands of that unworthy nobleman.[1]
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb

He never relieved any one from prosecution but in a single instance, in the case of a man who had given information of the conspiracy of Muraena; and that he did only by prevailing upon the accuser, in open court, to drop his prosecution.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

He had one who was his assistant, of his own nation, and who knew all the affairs of the kingdom, and instructed him to say how those that were sent to kill him and Aristobulus had pity upon them, and stole them away, by putting bodies that were like theirs in their places.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus

I am told that most of the professors there pass under the arch without tear; which indeed shows a wise contempt of the superstition."
— from The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 19, No. 552, June 16, 1832 by Various

It was agreed to lease the property, and temporarily to fix the rental at fixed charges and a guarantee of 2 per cent upon the capital stock, plus all the earnings of the Central Pacific system over and above that percentage until the amount should reach 6 per cent.
— from Chapters on the History of the Southern Pacific by Stuart Daggett

This music was so difficult that he was obliged to study it himself with increasing perseverance, and to make constant efforts to solve problems unknown to all other violinists.
— from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. V, No. XXIX., October, 1852 by Various

To these undertakings these great lords of the world have been stirred up, rather by the desire of fame, which plougheth up the air and soweth in the wind, than by the affection of bearing rule, which draweth after it so much vexation and so many cares.
— from A Book of English Prose Part II, Arranged for Secondary and High Schools by Percy Lubbock

The frowning walls of granite which form the lowest grade of this vast [516] amphitheatre, rise to a height of twelve hundred feet perpendicularly, and extend to nearly three-quarters of a league, increasing in width as they ascend to the regions of eternal snow; where may be traced a succession of precipices, until they are lost in the bases of the Cylindre and the Tours de Marboré, themselves the outworks of the Mont Perdu, from whose glaciers flow the numerous cascades which, in summer, shoot from the lower ridge of the Circus.
— from Béarn and the Pyrenees A Legendary Tour to the Country of Henri Quatre by Louisa Stuart Costello

Perhaps it is from this circumstance, that I always imagine St. Andrews to be an ineffectual seat of learning, and the sound of the east wind and the bursting surf to linger in its drowsy class-rooms and confound the utterance of the professor, until teacher and taught are alike drowned in oblivion, and only the sea-gull beats on the windows and the draught of the sea-air rustles in the pages of the open lecture.
— from The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 16 by Robert Louis Stevenson

There will be plenty of money to back this delusion for a time, and plenty of flatterers and sycophants to play up to and encourage the delusion.
— from Success (Second Edition) by Beaverbrook, Max Aitken, Baron

Imagination prompts us to attainment.
— from Grit A-Plenty: A Tale of the Labrador Wild by Dillon Wallace

In our helplessness we can only take refuge, perhaps, under the arms of the Almighty.
— from Bleeding Armenia: Its history and horrors under the curse of Islam by Augustus Warner Williams