Neither prudence nor honor could permit the emperors to forsake the cause of the Armenian king, and it was resolved to exert the force of the empire in the Persian war.
— 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 dramas abound in classical learning, are carefully and logically constructed, and comedy and tragedy are kept apart, instead of crowding each other as they do in Shakespeare and in life.
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

But when the tragic actor's part is done, When clamor ceases, and the fights are won, When heroes realize what Fate decreed, When chieftains mark no more which thousands bleed; When they have shone, as clouded or as bright, As fitful meteor in the heaven at night, And when the sycophant no more proclaims To gaping crowds the glory of their names,— 'Tis then the mem'ries of warriors die, And fall—alas!—into obscurity, Until the poet, in whose verse alone Exists a world—can make their actions known, And in eternal epic measures, show They are not yet forgotten here below.
— from Poems by Victor Hugo

The sight of them always kindled an involuntary joy in us; even my wife could not refrain from addressing words of encouragement to the men; at present it seemed not a single barricade had been lost.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

Mr. Cruncher was out of spirits, and out of temper, and kept an iron pot-lid by him as a projectile for the correction of Mrs. Cruncher, in case he should observe any symptoms of her saying Grace.
— from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

She trembles at thee still, and thy wild name Was ne'er more bruited in men's minds than now That thou art nothing, save the jest of Fame, Who wooed thee once, thy vassal, and became The flatterer of thy fierceness, till thou wert A god unto thyself; nor less the same To the astounded kingdoms all inert, Who deemed thee for a time whate'er thou didst assert.
— from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

What started me was the design to acquire knowledge, and information, and lore for recital, and the Fianna’s mighty deeds of valour, from Caeilte son of Ronan.”
— from The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. (Walter Yeeling) Evans-Wentz

You saw today, you were a witness, that I did all that a kind, an indulgent father could do.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

How then?” demanded madame, tying another knot, as if there were another enemy strangled.
— from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Incensed, David said: "Either thou art king and I am the general, or I am king and thou art the general."
— from The Legends of the Jews — Volume 4 by Louis Ginzberg

Marx holds that all capital—all industrial advances except wages—is absolutely unproductive of value, and therefore not entitled to the acknowledgment known as interest.
— from Contemporary Socialism by John Rae

Still talking with the archaeologist, Kennedy and I returned to his laboratory.
— from Gold of the Gods by Arthur B. (Arthur Benjamin) Reeve

The boy was game, though, and kept at it earnestly in spite of repeated failure.
— from The Rules of the Game by Stewart Edward White

Alike in the survey of the whole of the animal kingdom and in the study of the development of any individual form there are certain broad truths evident.
— from Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, May 1885 by Various

Do the folks on the avenue know about it yet?
— from Honor: A Play in Four Acts by Hermann Sudermann

Friedrich Wilhelm's History is one of ECONOMICS; which study, so soon as there are Kings again in this world, will be precious to them.
— from History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 04 by Thomas Carlyle

Instead of it he turned and tossed and kicked about in the strangest way, and felt so hot all over that he longed to get into the river and cool himself; and then he fell half asleep, and dreamt that he heard the little white lady crying to him, "Oh, you're so dirty; go and be washed;" and then that he heard the Irishwoman saying, "Those that wish to be clean, clean they will be."
— from The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley

They are known also in southern Florida and along the islands of the Caribbean, but in that region are not so often damaging to mankind.
— from Outlines of the Earth's History: A Popular Study in Physiography by Nathaniel Southgate Shaler

This excited apprehension in the Aragonese kingdoms and, in the Concordias of 1568, it was provided that familiars should be plain men and not powerful ones such as gentlemen and barons.
— from A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 2 by Henry Charles Lea