Various comical situations are brought about by Diccon, a thieving vagabond, who tells Gammer that her neighbor, Dame Chatte, has taken her needle, and who then hurries to tell Dame Chatte that she is accused by Gammer of stealing a favorite rooster.
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

And on this the tyrant became very indignant, and at first was inclined to put him to death; but afterwards, being appeased by Dion and Aristomenes, he forebore to do that, but gave him to Pollis, the Lacedæmonian, who happened to have come to him on an embassy just at that time, to sell as a slave.
— from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius

(And Alcimus speaks as follows) Page 119 , “Alcinus” changed to “Alcimus” (compared by Alcimus through four books) Page 120 , “Deni” changed to “Dion” twice (being appeased by Dion / it was Dion who sent the money) Page 120 , “Aristimenes” changed to “Aristomenes” (being appeased by Dion and Aristomenes) Page 120 , “Helia” changed to “Helice” (drowned in Helice) Page 121 , “Thetas” changed to “Theotas” (suspected of exciting Dion and Theotas) Page 123 , “Mesopis” changed to “Meropis” (Alexis says in his Meropis) Page 123 , “Analion” changed to “Ancylion” (And in his Ancylion, he says) Page 123 , “Pseudripobolimæus” changed to “Pseudypobolimæus” (Cratinas in his Pseudypobolimæus, says) Page 126 , “Sothon” changed to “Sathon” (which he entitled Sathon) Page 127 , “Mysonianus” changed to “Myronianus” (But Myronianus, in his Resemblances) Page 128 , “Cephiciades” changed to “Cephisiades” (the temple of the Cephisiades)
— from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius

One explanation that may be offered is that, since we are moved to action not by moral judgment alone, but also by desires and inclinations that operate independently of moral judgment, the answer which we really want to the question ‘Why should I do it?’ is one which does not merely prove a certain action to be right, but also stirs in us a predominant inclination to do the action.
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick

Nor were their ornaments like those in use to-day, set off by Tyrian purple, and silk tortured in endless fashions, but the wreathed leaves of the green dock and ivy, wherewith they went as bravely and becomingly decked as our Court dames with all the rare and far-fetched artifices that idle curiosity has taught them.
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

I warned him that in three or four days after the receipt of my letter he would be accosted by a Bolognese dancer and her mother, bearing a letter of commendation.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

He that was a mariner today, is an apothecary tomorrow; a smith one while, a philosopher another, in his volupiae ludis ; a king now with his crown, robes, sceptre, attendants, by and by drove a loaded ass before him like a carter, &c. If Democritus were alive now, he should see strange alterations, a new company of counterfeit vizards, whifflers, Cumane asses, maskers, mummers, painted puppets, outsides, fantastic shadows, gulls, monsters, giddy-heads, butterflies.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

They were always busy as bees, deeply absorbed in their little combats.
— from The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War by Stephen Crane

—‘And I am sure we never had a word of difference respecting it, except when Mr. Copperfield objected to my threes and fives being too much like each other, or to my putting curly tails to my sevens and nines,’ resumed my mother in another burst, and breaking down again.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

He told himself that this was a “room in a book,” and became dreamily assured that he was a man in a book.
— from His Own People by Booth Tarkington

It has also been advocated by Dr. A.C. Haddon, F.R.S. 95 The Gaelic names for family, teadhloch and cuedichc or coedichc , mean, the first, ‘having a common residence,’ the second, ‘those who eat together.’
— from The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 1 by R. V. (Robert Vane) Russell

Yesterday morning it rained when we first went out, but it cleared and became a beautiful day, and we had a pretty field day.
— from The Letters of Queen Victoria : A Selection from Her Majesty's Correspondence between the Years 1837 and 1861 Volume 3, 1854-1861 by Queen of Great Britain Victoria

They say that they always beat a brass dish at a birth so that the noise may penetrate the child’s ears, and this will remove any obstruction there may be to its hearing.
— from The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 3 by R. V. (Robert Vane) Russell

"I'd been awakened by a bad dream and found I couldn't go to sleep again, so decided to walk a little.
— from That Affair at Elizabeth by Burton Egbert Stevenson

Anything more dismal than that deserted town, abandoned by all but dying and helpless men and some 400 starving Bulgarian families, cannot be imagined.
— from The Romance of Modern Sieges Describing the personal adventures, resource and daring of besiegers and beseiged in all parts of the world by Edward Gilliat

I say "full and sufficient," because it cannot be said that all our groups are subjective, all brought about by displacement and obliteration.
— from Opuscula: Essays chiefly Philological and Ethnographical by R. G. (Robert Gordon) Latham

The three girls who had conceived and carried out this remarkable philanthropy were as busy as bees during all their waking hours and the spirit of helpful charity so strongly possessed them that all their thoughts were centered on their work.
— from Aunt Jane's Nieces in the Red Cross by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum