Augustus therefore endeavored to console himself with the idea that the boat might either succeed in reaching the land, or come sufficiently near to be fallen in with by vessels off the coast.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

So that whereas, when Hannibal crossed the Rhone, he had thirty-eight thousand infantry, and more than eight thousand cavalry, he lost nearly half in the pass, as I have shown above; while the survivors had by these long continued sufferings become almost savage in look and general appearance.
— from The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Polybius

For one naturally arms oneself to resist an attack, and becomes more obstinate in the resolve to establish the claims he has advanced.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

When flesh was only to be had at a high price for feeding his wild beasts reserved for the spectacles, he ordered that criminals should be given them (271) to be devoured; and upon inspecting them in a row, while he stood in the middle of the portico, without troubling himself to examine their cases he ordered them to be dragged away, from “bald-pate to bald-pate.”
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

We hear, for instance, that Greek religion was frivolous, because its mystic awe and momentous practical and poetic truths escape the Christian historian accustomed to a catechism and a religious morality; and similarly Catholic piety seems to the Protestant an æsthetic indulgence, a religion appealing to sense, because such is the only emotion its externals can awaken in him, unused as he is to a supernatural economy reaching down into the incidents and affections of daily life.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

Hoping to elude the chase he knew must follow, the French commodore steered west-northwest for the open sea, putting out all lights; but either from carelessness or disaffection,—for the latter is hinted by one French naval officer,—five out of the twelve ships headed to the northward and put into Cadiz when on the following morning they could not see the commodore.
— from The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

They saw through Hannibal’s purpose in thus acting,—which was at once to get a large supply of money, and at the same time to take away all enthusiasm from the troops opposed to him, by showing that even the conquered had a hope of getting safe home again.
— from The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Polybius

the air is so pure in this open country that mountains and other elivated objects appear much nearer than they really are; these mountains do not appear to be further than 15 m. we sent a man up this creek to explore the country he returned late in the evening and informed that he had proceeded ten miles directly towards these mountains and that he did not think himself by any mean half way these mountains are rockey and covered with some scattering pine.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

On the 5th of July 1723, he was brought to his Tryal, at a Court of Admiralty held at the Old-Baily , when Captain Russel , Governor Whitney ’s Son, and others, appeared as Evidences, by whom the Indictment was plainly proved against him; which, if it had not been done, the Captain was of such an heroick Spirit, that he would have deny’d nothing; for instead of making a Defence, he only entertained the Court with a long Narrative of his Expedition, from the first setting out, to his Return to England , mentioning two Acts of Pyracy committed by him, which he was not charged with, often challenging the Evidences to contradict him, if in any Thing he related the least Syllable of an Untruth; and instead of denying the Crimes set forth in the Indictment, he charged himself with various Circumstances, which fixed the Facts more home upon him.
— from A General History of the Pyrates: from their first rise and settlement in the island of Providence, to the present time by Daniel Defoe

During the latter part of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth, the coffee house made great progress in Italy.
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

The squire felt it kind in the doctor that he should thus endeavour to comfort him; but he could not understand, and did not inquire, on what basis these golden hopes was founded.
— from Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope

in 827, solicit the emperor to confirm his election; 75 which proves, as we have already observed, that Louis had not renounced this right in 819.
— from The Power of the Popes An Historical Essay on Their Temporal Dominion, and the Abuse of Their Spiritual Authority by P. C. F. (Pierre Claude François) Daunou

"His Holiness the Pope and the King of Spain," said the Admiral of Arragon, "think it necessary to apply most stringent measures to the emperor to compel him to appoint a successor, because, in case of his death without one, the administration during the vacancy would fall to the elector palatine,—a most perverse Calvinistic heretic, and as great an enemy of the house of Austria and of our holy religion as the Turk himself—as sufficiently appears in those diabolical laws of his published in the palatinate a few months since.
— from History of the United Netherlands from the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce — Complete (1584-1609) by John Lothrop Motley

"That is rather neat," he said approvingly; "but pray, don't repeat my speech to Lady Wolfer; she would think me exceedingly frivolous, and I spend my time in the endeavor to convince her of my gravity and discretion."
— from Nell, of Shorne Mills; or, One Heart's Burden by Charles Garvice

May (Th. Erskine), The Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George III.
— from The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas by Edward Westermarck

If he was disappointed in his diplomatic career, he had enough, and more than enough, to console him in his brilliant literary triumphs.
— from John Lothrop Motley, A Memoir — Complete by Oliver Wendell Holmes