When the supper was done, the three ugly ladies each went apart to undress, while I took away the dishes, and my heroine began to write.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

But this unnatural league expired with the power of the Franks; and Abulpharagius (who died in 1286) considers the Maronites as a sect of Monothelites, (Bibliot.
— 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

For they hated their souls in this world that they might keep them unto life eternal.
— from The Imitation of Christ by à Kempis Thomas

“Well, sire, the usurper left Elba on the 26th February, and landed on the 1st of March.”
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

She raised them up, looked earnestly at them, twined them around her thin fingers, and looked from time to time, anxiously at her father.
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

In the last resort, the ultimate living elements (Erasistratus’s simple vessels ) must draw in their food by virtue of an inherent attractive faculty like that which the lodestone exerts on iron.
— from Galen: On the Natural Faculties by Galen

2 Of seeds dropping into the ground, of births, Of the steady concentration of America, inland, upward, to impregnable and swarming places, Of what Indiana, Kentucky, Arkansas, and the rest, are to be, Of what a few years will show there in Nebraska, Colorado, Nevada, and the rest, (Or afar, mounting the Northern Pacific to Sitka or Aliaska,) Of what the feuillage of America is the preparation for—and of what all sights, North, South, East and West, are, Of this Union welded in blood, of the solemn price paid, of the unnamed lost ever present in my mind; Of the temporary use of materials for identity's sake, Of the present, passing, departing—of the growth of completer men than any yet, Of all sloping down there where the fresh free giver the mother, the Mississippi flows, Of mighty inland cities yet unsurvey'd and unsuspected, Of the new and good names, of the modern developments, of inalienable homesteads, Of a free and original life there, of simple diet and clean and sweet blood, Of litheness, majestic faces, clear eyes, and perfect physique there, Of immense spiritual results future years far West, each side of the Anahuacs, Of these songs, well understood there, (being made for that area,) Of the native scorn of grossness and gain there, (O it lurks in me night and day—what is gain after all to savageness and freedom?)
— from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

For then its disciples would have been obliged to feel like those who purposed to dig a hole straight through the earth: each one of whom perceives that with the utmost lifelong exertion he is able to excavate only a very little of the enormous depth, which is again filled up before his eyes by the labours of his successor, so that a third man seems to do well when on his own account he selects a new spot for his attempts at tunnelling.
— from The Birth of Tragedy; or, Hellenism and Pessimism by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Deep was the cave; and, downward as it went From the wide mouth, a rocky rough descent; And here th’ access a gloomy grove defends, And there th’ unnavigable lake extends, O’er whose unhappy waters, void of light, No bird presumes to steer his airy flight; Such deadly stenches from the depths arise, And steaming sulphur, that infects the skies.
— from The Aeneid by Virgil

There are schemes afoot for making the university less exclusive, and extending its influence.
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

I followed them upstairs, leaving Estebán, who had come up, to watch outside.
— from Cabbages and Kings by O. Henry

“But who can tell us?” “Listen!” exclaimed Chat suddenly.
— from Bumper the White Rabbit and His Friends by George Ethelbert Walsh

Ecce jam noctis tenuatur umbra, Lux et aurorae rutilans coruscat, Supplices rerum Dominum canora Voce precemur.
— from Hymni ecclesiae by John Henry Newman

In war times unskilled laborers earned from twelve to fifteen shillings a week, and mechanics twenty-five shillings; but in the stagnation of business which followed peace, wages suffered a great reduction, and thousands could find no work at all.
— from Beacon Lights of History, Volume 10: European Leaders by John Lord

There were also many quaint little tracts, metrical Novelle and Istorie , of which a collection has been found at the University Library, Erlangen; a valuable description of them was published by Dr. Varnhagen.
— from A Brief History of Wood-engraving from Its Invention by Joseph Cundall

The valet withdrew; and the unhappy lady endeavoured to eat a morsel of food: but she had no appetite—her stomach seemed to loathe all solid nourishment; and she pushed her plate from her.
— from The Mysteries of London, v. 2/4 by George W. M. (George William MacArthur) Reynolds

Unchaste dreams made her often dread to sleep, as she awoke from these unconscious lapses enervated, weak, and prostrated as though she had actually transgressed.
— from Plain Facts for Old and Young by John Harvey Kellogg

This bladder, which is simply a dilatation of the united lower ends of the primitive kidney-ducts, and has no further importance, is almost invariably present, but in many cases lies unsymmetrically either to the right or the left.
— from The Works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 1 (of 4) Separate Memoirs by Francis M. (Francis Maitland) Balfour