When Valerian sunk under the weight of shame and grief, his skin, stuffed with straw, and formed into the likeness of a human figure, was preserved for ages in the most celebrated temple of Persia; a more real monument of triumph, than the fancied trophies of brass and marble so often erected by Roman vanity.
— 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

The shadows, the images, the reflection of the sun and stars in the water, the stars and sun themselves, severally correspond,—the first, to the realm of fancy and poetry,—the second, to the world of sense,—the third, to the abstractions or universals of sense, of which the mathematical sciences furnish the type,—the fourth and last to the same abstractions, when seen in the unity of the idea, from which they derive a new meaning and power.
— from The Republic by Plato

5° and 18° E. , covering great part of Northern Italy, several departments of France, nearly the whole of Switzerland, and a large part of Austria, while its extensive ramifications connect it with nearly all the mountain systems of Europe.
— from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. A to Amide Vol. 1 Part 1 by Various

But this fragment of history is not about Ben Holliday, but about a young New York boy by the name of Jack, who traveled with our small party of pilgrims in the Holy Land (and who had traveled to California in Mr. Holliday’s overland coaches three years before, and had by no means forgotten it or lost his gushing admiration of Mr. H.)
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain

It is the kind of place one quickly recognizes,—tireless and with no restful green of verdure; hard and uneven of street; crude, cold, and even hateful of aspect; conventional, of course, in its business quarter, but quickly beyond one sees the ruts and the hollows, the stench of ill-tamed sewerage, unguarded railroad crossings, saloons outnumbering churches and churches catering to saloons; homes impudently strait and new, prostitutes free and happy, gamblers in paradise, the town "wide open," shameless and frank; great factories pouring out stench, filth, and flame—these and all other things so familiar in the world market places, where industry triumphs over thought and products overwhelm men.
— from Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois

“Well, ‘first come, first served,’ all the world over,” said the comely dame.
— from Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield

" "Never a whit," quoth merry Robin, "for I tell thee that we of Sherwood are more loyal to our lord the King than those of thine order.
— from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

There was one small countess, with an iron ring in her snout and hardly any hair on her back, that was the devil for perversity.
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

In this way the upper parts of the walls of several Saxon naves—more, probably, than we have opportunity of discovering—remain to us.
— from The Ground Plan of the English Parish Church by A. Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton) Thompson

That terrible lion of expense, the furnishing of a house, that stands ever in the way of so many loving pairs desirous of marriage and a home of their own, is a bugbear not known in Japan.
— from Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 12, No. 29, August, 1873 by Various

Beyond bowing to us, however, as they passed, they took no further notice of me for the present, and contented themselves with ordering some wine, and conversing in low tones at the table at which they sat.
— from The Chevalier d'Auriac by S. (Sidney) Levett Yeats

They were of staring red brick, with sandstone heads to doors and windows; the flood carried away three out of the four.
— from The Pennycomequicks, Volume 1 (of 3) by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould

On November 6th, 1329, the consuls of the Arte di Calimala, who had charge of the works of San Giovanni, ordained that their doors should be of metal and as beautiful as possible.
— from The Story of Florence by Edmund G. Gardner

The calamity was universal; the whole body of parliamentary pauperism was compelled to work or starve.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 64, No. 397, November 1848 by Various

There was, indeed, one day when he could hardly fail to show himself, and that was on St. Stephen's day--a day when, by immemorial custom, every one honours the first martyr by attending mass at the great church.
— from Leonora D'Orco: A Historical Romance by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

While the boats were standing by, a Swedish vessel, the Waldemar , of Stockholm, appeared on the scene and picked up the crew.
— from The German Pirate: His Methods and Record by Ajax

The truths were of so general a character as to deserve the attention of mankind at large.
— from Notes on the New Testament, Explanatory and Practical: Revelation by Albert Barnes