During a long period of decay, his impregnable city repelled the victorious armies of Barbarians, protected the wealth of Asia, and commanded, both in peace and war, the important straits which connect the Euxine and Mediterranean Seas.
— 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

They therefore brought before a general and extraordinary Assembly of all the States of Flatland a Bill proposing that in every Woman the half containing the eye and mouth should be coloured red, and the other half green.
— from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Illustrated) by Edwin Abbott Abbott

My mother I may mention with honour, as still more highly gifted; for though unpretending to the name and honours of a literary woman, I shall presume to call her (what many literary women are not) an intellectual woman; and I believe that if ever her letters should be collected and published, they would be thought generally to exhibit as much strong and masculine sense, delivered in as pure “mother English,” racy and fresh with idiomatic graces, as any in our language—hardly excepting those of Lady M. W. Montague.
— from Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey

I value a man according to the quantum of power and fullness of his will : not according to the enfeeblement and moribund state thereof.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book I and II by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

All throve, till an argosy, on its way home, With a cargo worth more than their capital sum, In attempting to pass through a dangerous strait, Went down with its passengers, sailors, and freight, To enrich those enormous and miserly stores, From Tartarus distant but very few doors.
— from Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Jean de La Fontaine

He succeeded in disappearing, sold the Bishop’s silver, reserving only the candlesticks as a souvenir, crept from town to town, traversed France, came to M. sur M., conceived the idea which we have mentioned, accomplished what we have related, succeeded in rendering himself safe from seizure and inaccessible, and, thenceforth, established at M. sur M., happy in feeling his conscience saddened by the past and the first half of his existence belied by the last, he lived in peace, reassured and hopeful, having henceforth only two thoughts,—to conceal his name and to sanctify his life; to escape men and to return to God.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

I must also observe, for his mother's satisfaction, that Edward at my suggestion devoted [319] himself very properly to the entertainment of Miss S. Gibson.
— from The Letters of Jane Austen Selected from the compilation of her great nephew, Edward, Lord Bradbourne by Jane Austen

It suggested no other surprise than that Elinor and Marianne should sit so composedly by, without claiming a share in what was passing.
— from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Again, of philosophers some derived a surname from cities, as, the Elians, and Megaric sect, the Eretrians, and the Cyrenaics.
— from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius

A. B. Allen of New York, one of the earliest, and most strenuous advocates of using guano, who, long before he ever thought of being engaged in its sale, used to distribute small parcels among farmers and gardeners to enable them to try experiments and learn its value, in a letter to the Southern Cultivator, says:—"Never put guano in the hill with corn, no matter if covered two or three inches deep; for the roots will be certain to find it, and so sure as they touch the guano, so caustic is it, that it will certainly kill the corn; the same with peas, beans, melon vines, in fact most vegetable crops.
— from Guano: A Treatise of Practical Information for Farmers by Solon Robinson

When all that spake with thee of thine old deeds are dead, those that saw them not shall speak of them again to thee; till one speaking to thee of thy deeds of valour add more than even a man should when speaking to a King, and thou shalt suddenly doubt whether these great deeds were; and there shall be none to tell thee, only the echoes of the voices of the gods still singing in thine ears when long ago They called the princes that were thy friends.
— from Time and the Gods by Lord Dunsany

Stà púr' a vedére, stay yet and see, Tù sẻi púr gi ó nt o , thou art come for all that, Púre ci vénne alla fine, notwithstanding he came yet in the end, and many such others.
— from Queen Anna's New World of Words; or, Dictionarie of the Italian and English Tongues by John Florio

I can make Verses tolerably well; and I know how in my Descriptions to extend a mean Subject, and Contract a great one: I know how to excite Terror, and Compassion, and to make pitiful things appear Dreadful and Menacing.
— from The Preface to Aristotle's Art of Poetry by André Dacier

"People care very little as to what I say and think, and perhaps they are right," he remarked; "but still, the Emperor acts more sensibly by marrying the woman he likes than by eating humble-pie and bargaining for some strait-laced, stuck-up German princess, with feet as large as mine.
— from An Englishman in Paris: Notes and Recollections by Albert D. (Albert Dresden) Vandam

Owing to this rising of the petioles, and the vertical sinking of the large leaflets, the leaves become crowded together at night, and the whole plant then exposes a much smaller surface to radiation than during the day.
— from The Power of Movement in Plants by Darwin, Francis, Sir