She says, she had forgiven many faults on account of youth; but expressed such detestation of the character of a libertine, that she absolutely silenced me.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

If I were but at liberty to speak, I should be proud of your Lordship’s enquiries: but, indeed, I am not-I have not any right to communicate the affairs of Mr. Macartney;-your Lordship cannot suppose I have.”
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney

Like most around him for more than a minute his look, too, was on the ground; but, trusting his eyes at length to steal a glance aside, he perceived that he was becoming an object of general attention.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper

I met Adèle leaving the schoolroom.
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë

Ten o’clock came, and the noise of vehicles ceased, scattered lights began to wink out, all straggling foot-passengers disappeared, the village betook itself to its slumbers and left the small watcher alone with the silence and the ghosts.
— from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

The same ceremony was repeated, though with less energy, in the subsequent associations of Lothaire and Lewis the Second: the Carlovingian sceptre was transmitted from father to son in a lineal descent of four generations; and the ambition of the popes was reduced to the empty honor of crowning and anointing these hereditary princes, who were already invested with their power and dominions.
— 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

Further pursuit was useless; but the boats still lingered in their wake to pick up what drugged whales might be dropped astern, and likewise to secure one which Flask had killed and waifed.
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville

Def. viii.), and as no one endeavours to preserve his own being, except in accordance with the laws of his own nature, it follows, first, that the foundation of virtue is the endeavour to preserve one's own being, and that happiness consists in man's power of preserving his own being; secondly, that virtue is to be desired for its own sake, and that there is nothing more excellent or more useful to us, for the sake of which we should desire it; thirdly and lastly, that suicides are weak—minded, and are overcome by external causes repugnant to their nature.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza

In the time of Socrates, among men only of worn-out instincts, old conservative Athenians who let themselves go—"for the sake of happiness," as they said, for the sake of pleasure, as their conduct indicated—and who had continually on their lips the old pompous words to which they had long forfeited the right by the life they led, IRONY was perhaps necessary for greatness of soul, the wicked Socratic assurance of the old physician and plebeian, who cut ruthlessly into his own flesh, as into the flesh and heart of the "noble," with a look that said plainly enough "Do not dissemble before me!
— from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Niebuhr, in the 3rd vol. of his Roman history, considers the Cleandridas, who took a part in the foundation of Heraclea, as the same person as Leandrias the Spartan, who, according to Diod. XV. 54, fought at Leuctra on the side of the Thebans.
— from The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 2 of 2 by Karl Otfried Müller

[172] Troilus does not forget to praise Venus when Criseyde is won at last: “Than seyde he thus, ‘O, Love, O, Charitee, Thy moder eek, Citherea the swete, After thy-self next heried be she,
— from Astronomical Lore in Chaucer by Florence M. (Florence Marie) Grimm

Thus alternately struggling on both flanks, I got at last to some rocks about a mile from the camp.
— from What I Saw in Kaffir-Land by Stephen Lakeman

First, therefore, let usury in general, be reduced to five in the hundred; and let that rate be proclaimed, to be free and current; and let the state shut itself out, to take any penalty for the same.
— from The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral by Francis Bacon

Once in the open she could flee to the jungle, and then there was a chance at least that she might find her way to the coast and Theriere.
— from The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs

The reason why it is wise to dwell on this kind of set-off against the ill effects of Separation is that Home Rule, while involving almost all the evils of Separation, will be found on examination not to hold out anything like the same hopes of compensating advantages.
— from England's Case Against Home Rule by Albert Venn Dicey

The dancers all lessened their speed.
— from The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

Cover these close, and let them stew till they are tender; then pour in a Glass or two of Claret; and when it is warm, clear your Sauce of the Onion, Herbs, &c .
— from The Country Housewife and Lady's Director in the Management of a House, and the Delights and Profits of a Farm by Richard Bradley