They recollected the preceding earthquakes, which had subverted the cities of Palestine and Bithynia: they considered these alarming strokes as the prelude only of still more dreadful calamities, and their fearful vanity was disposed to confound the symptoms of a declining empire and a sinking world.
— 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

My dear Cassandra ,—Your letter yesterday made me very happy.
— from The Letters of Jane Austen Selected from the compilation of her great nephew, Edward, Lord Bradbourne by Jane Austen

I am placed in the most difficult circumstances.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

And for the same reason the blue and violet being much darker Colours than these, and much more rarified, may be neglected.
— from Opticks Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, and Colours of Light by Isaac Newton

As to my Lord Bruncker, she says how Mrs. Griffin, our housekeeper’s wife, hath it from his maid, that comes to her house often, that they are very poor; that the other day Mrs. Williams was fain to send a jewell to pawn; that their maid hath said herself that she hath got L50 since she come thither, and L17 by the payment of one bill; that they have a most lewd and nasty family here in the office, but Mrs. Turner do tell me that my Lord hath put the King to infinite charge since his coming thither in alterations, and particularly that Mr. Harper at Deptford did himself tell her that my Lord hath had of Foly, the ironmonger, L50 worth in locks and keys for his house, and that it is from the fineness of them, having some of L4 and L5 a lock, such as is in the Duke’s closet; that he hath several of these; that he do keep many of her things from her of her own goods, and would have her bring a bill into the office for them; that Mrs. Griffin do say that he do not keep Mrs. Williams now for love, but need, he having another whore that he keeps in Covent Garden; that they do owe money everywhere almost for every thing, even Mrs. Shipman for her butter and cheese about L3, and after many demands cannot get it.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

It was surprising that so much destructiveness could be contained in one human mind.
— from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

'My dear Courtland,' said I, immediately throwing them all into the fire, 'do not adopt either of them, but by all means build a cottage.'
— from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

"Oh, Uncle!" was my despairing cry.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

Paletz was afterward joined by Michael de Cassis, on the part of the court of Rome.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

At last one day the inevitable happened—she went to see Madame de Choiseul, and she was bored.
— from Books and Characters, French & English by Lytton Strachey

Henrietta Maria , Queen of Charles I. of England, her warm reception of Madame de Chevreuse, 22 ; seeks an Asylum in France from the Parliamentarians, 143 ; [307] asserted to have secretly married her equerry, Jermyn, 202 .
— from Political Women, Vol. 1 by Menzies, Sutherland, active 1840-1883

M. Deorum cibus est —A feast fit for the gods.
— 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.

[1156] Gachard, Retraite et Mort de Charles-quint, II, 354.
— from A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 3 by Henry Charles Lea

And when that moment did come what would all this horror amount to?
— from The U. P. Trail by Zane Grey

"The Moscow doctor!" cried several voices.
— from The Sowers by Henry Seton Merriman

Then she went into the parlour, while the sister who attended to the turnstile gave notice through the wicket that Mademoiselle de Clavelin was wanted to come and see her mother.
— from The Wicker Work Woman: A Chronicle of Our Own Times by Anatole France

Good-bye, once more, dear children.
— from That Unfortunate Marriage, Vol. 3 by Frances Eleanor Trollope

I put up with it as long as I could and then joined in and tried to improve it, but this encouraged young George to join in too, and that made a failure of it; because George’s voice was just “turning,” and when he was singing a dismal sort of bass it was apt to fly off the handle and startle everybody with a most discordant cackle on the upper notes.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

The “Mighty Dollar” cannot buy The love for which in vain you sigh. 20.
— from The Seaside Sibyl; Or Leaves of Destiny: A Fortune Teller in Verse by Anonymous