In fact an opportunity occurred for it to perform a conspicuous act of gallantry which elicited the highest commendation from division commanders in the Army of the Tennessee.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant

So we rode easily through, and only drinking at Holloway, at the sign of a woman with cakes in one hand and a pot of ale in the other, which did give good occasion of mirth, resembling her to the maid that served us, we got home very timely and well, and finding there all well, and letters from sea, that speak of my Lord’s being well, and his action, though not considerable of any side, at Argier.—[Algiers]—I went straight to my Lady, and there sat and talked with her, and so home again, and after supper we to bed somewhat weary, hearing of nothing ill since my absence but my brother Tom, who is pretty well though again.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

But his credulity and injustice may teach an important lesson; to distrust the accounts of foreign and remote nations, and to suspend our belief of every tale that deviates from the laws of nature and the character of man.
— 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 that can define, he that can answer a question so as to admit of no further answer, is the best man.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

[Pg 261] The ancient philosophers and legislators were deeply impressed with the contrast between an inland and a maritime city: in the former, simplicity and uniformity of life, tenacity of ancient habits and dislike of what is new or foreign, great force of exclusive sympathy and narrow range both of objects and ideas; in the latter, variety and novelty of sensations, expansive imagination, toleration, and occasional preference for extraneous customs, greater activity of the individual and corresponding mutability of the state.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

He discoursed of botany and ethnology with unimpeachable inaccuracy, and his store of local legends—he had been a trusted agent of the State for fifteen years, remember—was inexhaustible.
— from Kim by Rudyard Kipling

But Merlin warned the king covertly that Guenever was not wholesome for him to take to wife, for he warned him that Launcelot should love her, and she him again; and so he turned his tale to the adventures of Sangreal.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir

They found on him a little round card pasted between two pieces of glass, and bearing on one side the arms of France, engraved, and with this motto: Supervision and vigilance , and on the other this note: “JAVERT, inspector of police, aged fifty-two,” and the signature of the Prefect of Police of that day, M. Gisquet.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

18 The following year was disastrous, whether by the intemperature of the air, or by human guilt, Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Caius Valerius being consuls.
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy

The tragic death during the Free Trade agitation of Edward Drummond, Peel’s private secretary, was a terrible shock to Lady Peel.
— from Wives of the Prime Ministers, 1844-1906 by Lucy Masterman

The advantages of this station may be the more appreciated, from the following letter of the governor-general to the chairman of the Court of Directors, (October 6, 1800,)—"In the present year I was nearly seven months without receiving one line of authentic intelligence from England.
— from Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846 by Various

In other words, the axes of figure of the two surfaces must coincide.
— from On Laboratory Arts by Richard Threlfall

He also advises that the paper should not be afterwards ironed , as it is apt to produce flaws and spots on the albumenized surface; and he believes that the chemical action of the nitrate of silver alone is sufficient to coagulate the albumen, without the application of heat.
— from Notes and Queries, Number 212, November 19, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by Various

"You may have it," I said, "with the sheath, if you will let me have the one thousand Roman crowns, the amount of the letter of exchange:" He thought it an excellent bargain, and accepted it joyfully.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 05: Milan and Mantua by Giacomo Casanova

In support of the plausibility of this conjecture, it further occurred to her that the forbidden gallery, in which lay the apartments of the unfortunate Mrs. Tilney, must be, as certainly as her memory could guide her, exactly over this suspected range of cells, and the staircase by the side of those apartments of which she had caught a transient glimpse, communicating by some secret means with those cells, might well have favoured the barbarous proceedings of her husband.
— from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Broken down as we were, if we had been supplied with cartridges we could have piled the ground with Judah's men as they advanced over the open plain into the valley.
— from Famous Adventures and Prison Escapes of the Civil War by Basil Wilson Duke

It was a necessary battle, made so by the aggressions of England; in addition to its national necessity, it was as necessary as would be the defense by a citizen of his home and family from marauders; 3rd:
— from Battle of New Orleans: Its Real Meaning by Reau E. (Reau Estes) Folk

Prose translations are of course tenable, and are (I am told) advocated by another very eminent critic.
— from Theocritus, translated into English Verse by Theocritus

For it, therefore, victory is not the affair of a day here or a day there, however rousing to the blood: it lies rather in what is neither spectacular nor resounding—in the monotonous but manifold perfection of an indispensable service.
— from Days to Remember: The British Empire in the Great War by John Buchan