Five centuries of the decline and fall of the empire have already elapsed; but a period of more than eight hundred years still separates me from the term of my labors, the taking of Constantinople by the Turks.
— 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

He adds: “Then ‘twas a merry world with me, for indeed before tobacco was there planted, there being no kind of trade to employ men, and very small tillage, necessity compelled poor men to stand my friends by stealing of sheep and other cattel, breaking of hedges, robbing of orchards, and what not.”
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

They are stowaways, Mr. Flask.”
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville

"Beatrice," asked he, abruptly, "whence came this shrub?" "My father created it," answered she, with simplicity.
— from Mosses from an Old Manse, and Other Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne

CHAPTER 31 W ith steps more faltering and unsteady than those with which she had approached the room, the child withdrew from the door, and groped her way back to her own chamber.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

I myself heard a little girl once say to a servant, "My mamma has been scolding me finely this morning, because her hair was not dressed to please her."
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects by Mary Wollstonecraft

Great, indeed, was the despair of my good old chorus-master and stage manager, Fischer—who before had enthusiastically advocated the invitation of Spontini—when he recognised that the dislocation of our repertoire was now inevitable.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

I have to run out of town with some men from Boston who are with me in a deal for some coal and iron land, but I'll see you when I return."
— from Ann Boyd: A Novel by Will N. (Will Nathaniel) Harben

Well now, so much for the record itself,—so much for its imperfections,—so much for the conditions to be observed in interpreting it, and its chronological indications, the moment we pass beyond the limits of a vertical linear section.
— from Man's Place in Nature, and Other Essays by Thomas Henry Huxley

In the course of the summer my "Faust" and "Dante" Symphonies will be published by Hartel, together with a couple of new Symphonic Poems.
— from Letters of Franz Liszt -- Volume 1 from Paris to Rome: Years of Travel as a Virtuoso by Franz Liszt

They can be distinguished from those of the house-fly as the stigma-plates are smaller, much further apart, with the slits less sinuous.
— from Handbook of Medical Entomology by O. A. (Oskar Augustus) Johannsen

Despite the distance that separated me from the horrible scene that I am about to describe to you, I could distinctly hear the voices of the Franks, who were drawing nearer and nearer.
— from The Poniard's Hilt; Or, Karadeucq and Ronan. A Tale of Bagauders and Vagres by Eugène Sue

My soul was too full of the home we had left, and I knew, by the expression of Harrington's face, that he understood and shared my feelings.
— from Mabel's Mistake by Ann S. (Ann Sophia) Stephens

Amidst the pleasantness of the scene, there was something missing from the feel of the area: inhabitants.
— from The Revolutions of Time by Jonathan Dunn

It runs from the sea a little sloping towards the top; which is divided in the middle into two peaks, between which issued out much smoke: I have not seen more from any volcano.
— from A Continuation of a Voyage to New Holland, Etc. in the Year 1699 by William Dampier

Though glad to see my friend, the memories which his presence revived, of the days when I was a happy and a useful minister of Christ, and the partial re-awakening of old religious thoughts and feelings which it occasioned, made me feel, for a moment, an indescribable sensation, as of one who had got an unlooked-for glimpse of some fearful loss he had sustained, or of some tremendous mistake he had committed.
— from Modern Skepticism: A Journey Through the Land of Doubt and Back Again A Life Story by Joseph Barker