His court was adorned with luxury and science; but, in a reign of three-and-twenty years, Harun repeatedly visited his provinces from Chorasan to Egypt; nine times he performed the pilgrimage of Mecca; eight times he invaded the territories of the Romans; and as often as they declined the payment of the tribute, they were taught to feel that a month of depredation was more costly than a year of submission.
— 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

And as the multitude is wont to do, the more Cleon shrank from the expedition and tried to back out of what he had said, the more they encouraged Nicias to hand over his command, and clamoured at Cleon to go.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

Various attempts have been made by his biographers to soften and explain away this, early transgression of the poet; but I look upon it as one of those thoughtless exploits natural to his situation and turn of mind.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving

The English, notwithstanding their heavy loss in the Four Days' Battle, were at sea again within two months, much to the surprise of the Dutch; and on the 4th of August
— from The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

The degree of tension of the nerves in the ear, necessary to hear each note, explains well enough the physical part of one's pleasure in music.
— from On Love by Stendhal

Now do I hear for the first time that which they have said so often: 'We good, we are the righteous '—what they demand they call not revenge but 'the triumph of righteousness '; what they hate is not their enemy, no, they hate 'unrighteousness,' 'godlessness'; what they believe in and hope is not the hope of revenge, the intoxication of sweet revenge (—"sweeter than honey," did Homer call it?), but the victory of God, of the righteous God over the 'godless'; what is left for them to love in this world is not their brothers in hate, but their 'brothers in love,' as they say, all the good and righteous on the earth."
— from The Genealogy of Morals The Complete Works, Volume Thirteen, edited by Dr. Oscar Levy. by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

As in a theatre, the eyes of men, / After a well-graced actor leaves the stage, / Are idly bent on him that enters next, / Thinking his prattle to be tedious.
— 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.

But the unthreshed sheaves remaining untouched seemed countless still, notwithstanding the enormous numbers that had been gulped down by the insatiable swallower, fed by the man and Tess, through whose two young hands the greater part of them had passed.
— from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy

Then he told me that even now the horses were ready, and that he was about to abandon the place, going to the house of that thane of whom I had told him.
— from A Thane of Wessex Being a Story of the Great Viking Raids into Somerset by Charles W. (Charles Watts) Whistler

The old Bohemian was there, in a humble attitude, little conformable with the effrontery natural to his race.
— from Michael Strogoff; Or, The Courier of the Czar by Jules Verne

He said that, as master of his own kingdom by right of succession, he could not see how any one had the power to dispose of it without his consent; he added that he was not at all willing to renounce the religion of his fathers to adopt one of which he had only heard that day for the first time; with regard to the other points touched upon in the discourse he understood nothing, it was a thing entirely new to him, and he would much like to know where Valverde had learnt so many wonderful things.
— from Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 1. The Exploration of the World by Jules Verne

If a bunch of grass grows very tall and requires parting, part it with the end (not the handle) of your stick.
— from The Amateur Poacher by Richard Jefferies

He was persuaded to abandon this unsuitable habit and to eat nothing till half-past ten, when his adviser prescribed a well-cooked little déjeuner à la fourchette , accompanied by half a bottle of sound Bordeaux.
— from The Intellectual Life by Philip Gilbert Hamerton

Victoria understood very well the meaning and the attractions of power and property, and in such learning the English nation, too, had grown to be more and more proficient.
— from Queen Victoria by Lytton Strachey

At sun-rising the sky looked very red in the east near the horizon; and there were many black clouds both to the south and north of it.
— from A Continuation of a Voyage to New Holland, Etc. in the Year 1699 by William Dampier