When they heard that the Romans were preparing their fleet, and were intending to sail once more against Libya, they set about shipbuilding also, partly repairing old vessels and partly constructing new.
— from The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Polybius

That secondary and peculiar right Of sovereignty, but even that prime Inheritance that all men share alike, And chain'd him—chain'd him!—like a wild beast's whelp.
— from Life Is a Dream by Pedro Calderón de la Barca

It was a time of undisputed peace and profound royalist security; it was the epoch when a special and private report of Chief of Police Anglès to the King, on the subject of the suburbs of Paris, terminated with these lines:— “Taking all things into consideration, Sire, there is nothing to be feared from these people.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

In poor Maggie's highly-strung, hungry nature,–just come away from a third-rate schoolroom, with all its jarring sounds and petty round of tasks,–these apparently trivial causes had the effect of rousing and exalting her imagination in a way that was mysterious to herself.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

strong, Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide: Look, what a horse should have he did not lack, Save a proud rider on so proud a back.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

This conversation occurred during a long pause we had made in our first night’s orgy when quietly seated after purification, restoring our powers with Champagne and some slight refreshments prepared by our host for the occasion.
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous

Every mode of religious worship which had been practised by the saints, every mysterious doctrine which they believed, was fortified by the sanction of divine revelation, and all the manly virtues were oppressed by the servile and pusillanimous reign of the monks.
— 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

His silence concerning the family of Stilicho may be admitted as a proof, that his patron was neither able, nor desirous, to boast of a long series of illustrious progenitors; and the slight mention of his father, an officer of Barbarian cavalry in the service of Valens, seems to countenance the assertion, that the general, who so long commanded the armies of Rome, was descended from the savage and perfidious race of the Vandals.
— 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

But all geologists, excepting the few who believe that our present metamorphic schists and plutonic rocks once formed the primordial nucleus of the globe, will admit that these latter rocks have been stripped of their covering to an enormous extent.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

The true serenity and perfect rest Of every pious soul—to see Thy face, The end and the beginning—One the guide, The traveller, the pathway, and the goal. FOOTNOTES:
— from The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius

One person cannot bear the light, and wears blue glasses; another cannot breathe out-door air, and wears a respirator; another cannot bear to see a person rock or to hear a person drum.
— from Why Worry? by George Lincoln Walton

The equalization of the new burgesses with the old was simply a partial resumption of the proposals drawn up by Drusus in favour of the Italians; and, like these, only carried out the requirements of a sound policy.
— from The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) by Theodor Mommsen

One cannot at a moment contemplate what excesses our enthusiasm might not carry us to; and I should not wonder in the least if some great publisher of respectable standing might not start a pirated reprint of the New York Herald .
— from Nuts and Nutcrackers by Charles James Lever

Nevertheless, he turned uneasily in the silence of the pale room, so full of the shy and prim refinement of Mrs. Maldon's individuality.
— from The Price of Love by Arnold Bennett

But certainly the legislature has nothing to do with securing to any classes of its subjects a particular rate of profits in their different trades.
— from The Grounds of an Opinion on the Policy of Restricting the Importation of Foreign Corn Intended as an appendix to "Observations on the corn laws" by T. R. (Thomas Robert) Malthus

[15] Tug, in the Somali language, signifies a periodical river, or water-course, the same as Wadi in Arabic, and Nullah in Hindustani.
— from What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile by John Hanning Speke

Its central motive, of the Saviour delivering the keys to St. Peter and the Summa to St. Thomas, the spiritual and philosophical regimens of the mediæval world, is very finely rendered; while the angelic choir is a foretaste of Angelico.
— from The Story of Florence by Edmund G. Gardner

The conversation turned chiefly on the Movement; if it strayed Aunt Plessington reached out her voice after it and brought it back in a masterful manner.
— from Marriage by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

The last and longest story, A Purple Rhododendron , originally appeared in The Southern Magazine , a now defunct periodical of Louisville, Kentucky.
— from Kentucky in American Letters, 1784-1912. Vol. 2 of 2 by John Wilson Townsend