For to-day and the States, I think the vividest, rapidest, most stupendous processes ever known, ever perform'd by man or nation, on the largest scales and in countless varieties, are now and here presented.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

92 He dictated an epistle of censure and reproach, more suitable, perhaps, if the emperor had received the mark of circumcision, and renounced the faith of his baptism.
— 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

Kining kahúya ígù rang makaláwas sa píkas kílid sa sakayan, These boards are only enough to make one side of the boat.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

Repetition marks some progress on mere continuity, since it preserves form and disregards time and matter.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

Moreover, in planting rice it is an invariable rule that there must be water in the field, in order that the rice may sprout properly; though, on the other hand, if there is too great a depth of water the rice is sure to die.
— from Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula by Walter William Skeat

Leaving philosophy for the moment, I must renew my sketchy pictures of the scenes I pass through, lest treacherous memory should relinquish their best traits unpreserved.
— from From the Oak to the Olive: A Plain record of a Pleasant Journey by Julia Ward Howe

With a most retentive memory, she possesses the tact that does not always accompany this precious gift—that of only repeating what is perfectly à propos and interesting, with a fund of anecdotes that might form an inexhaustible capital for a professional diner-out to set up with; an ill-natured one never escapes her lips, and yet—hear it all ye who believe, or act as if ye believe, that malice and wit are inseparable allies!—it would be difficult to find a more entertaining and lively companion.
— from The Idler in France by Blessington, Marguerite, Countess of

When this woman, of a really manly spirit, pictured herself as living in solitude, she felt her courage fail.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

"If I were, I should be silent, Ventura—I should be silent and watchful; and if my jealousy were well grounded—I learned what to do before the priest read me Saint Paul's epistles.
— from The Fourth Estate, vol. 2 by Armando Palacio Valdés

For this reason, most serene prince, may your highness fan the spark that has been kindled in your heart; may a flame go forth from the house of Savoy, as in former times from the house of Joseph; [932] may all France be consumed like stubble before that fire; may it burn, blaze, and purify, so that this illustrious kingdom may truly be called most christian , for which it is indebted, up to this hour, solely to the rivers of blood shed in the service of Antichrist."
— from History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, Volume 3 by J. H. (Jean Henri) Merle d'Aubigné

"It doesn't really matter," said Patty, "and we're even, anyway; for I can't understand why you want those fearful posters in your room, instead of the nice little pictures I had planned to give you."
— from Patty at Home by Carolyn Wells