At a soirée , par excellence , music, dancing, and conversation are all admissible, and if the hostess has tact and discretion this variety is very pleasing.
— from The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness Being a Complete Guide for a Gentleman's Conduct in All His Relations Towards Society by Cecil B. Hartley

Underneath the fluctuations of the expressions of society, as well as the movements of the politics of the leading nations of the world, we see steadily pressing ahead and strengthening itself, even in the midst of immense tendencies toward aggregation, this image of completeness in separatism, of individual personal dignity, of a single person, either male or female, characterized in the main, not from extrinsic acquirements or position, but in the pride of himself or herself alone; and, as an eventual conclusion and summing up, (or else the entire scheme of things is aimless, a cheat, a crash,) the simple idea that the last, best dependence is to be upon humanity itself, and its own inherent, normal, fullgrown qualities, without any superstitious support whatever.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

I tell you that, in the emigration, the Abbe de la Marche who was here and was employed in the Quiberoon business with Puisaye and Tinteniac, was the same Colonel of Mousquetaires Gris with whom Steyne fought in the year '86—that he and the Marchioness met again—that it was after the Reverend Colonel was shot in Brittany that Lady Steyne took to those extreme practices of devotion which she carries on now; for she is closeted with her director every day—she is at service at Spanish Place, every morning, I've watched her there—that is, I've happened to be passing there—and depend on it, there's a mystery in her case.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

A feeling of devotion, of duty, of a high and steady purpose, elevated me; a strange joy filled my heart.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Hence a stranded proa excites much alarm amongst the coast population, and they immediately burn it, because demons fly from fire.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

Omisso enim eo, quod potissimum postulabatur, hoc expeti putavit, ut principium aliquod ethicae conderetur, itaqae eam partem commentationis suae, in qua principii ethicae a se propositi et metaphysicae suae nexum exponit, appendices loco habuit, in qua plus quam postulatum esset praestaret, quum tamen ipsum thema ejusmodi disputationem flagitaret, in qua vel praecipuo loco metaphysicae et ethicae nexus consideraretur.
— from The Basis of Morality by Arthur Schopenhauer

Heaven with a secret principle endued Mankind, to seek their own similitude.
— from The Odyssey by Homer

At night we could hear from amid the trees the long-drawn cry, as some primitive Ezekiel mourned for fallen greatness and recalled the departed glories of Ape Town.
— from The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

His spirit, after some previous expiation, might have been permitted to mingle with the benefactors of mankind, if an Italian hermit had not been witness, in a vision, to the damnation of Theodoric, 108 whose soul was plunged, by the ministers of divine vengeance, into the volcano of Lipari, one of the flaming mouths of the infernal 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

Mr. Chase remarked: 'This paper is of the utmost importance, greater than any state paper ever made by this Government.
— from Abraham Lincoln: Was He a Christian? by John E. (John Eleazer) Remsburg

Kemble's advertisement, so like that of a penitent Hackney Coachman under the threatened Lash of a sharp prosecution, excites much notice, I understand; but am shocked to find his offence, though actionable, considered by the fashionists more as a jest than as an enormity.
— from The Intimate Letters of Hester Piozzi and Penelope Pennington, 1788-1821 by Penelope Pennington

So also there is a world in a single profound, earnest meditation.—
— from The Girl Wanted: A Book of Friendly Thoughts by Nixon Waterman

How often do we see families stricken to the very dust, by the first, and perhaps only a slight blow, of misfortune; and this, merely for the want of a little of that practical knowledge, and that experience, which would have enabled them to husband their diminished means so that they might still supply sufficient to meet all real wants, and still procure every material comfort.
— from The English Housekeeper: Or, Manual of Domestic Management Containing advice on the conduct of household affairs and practical instructions concerning the store-room, the pantry, the larder, the kitchen, the cellar, the dairy; the whole being intended for the use of young ladies who undertake the superintendence of their own housekeeping by Anne Cobbett

"Amazement and surprise, Patroon!" exclaimed Myndert, with a tremendous hem "Here is a discovery to give a respectable merchant more uneasiness than the undutiful conduct of fifty nieces!
— from The Water-Witch; Or, the Skimmer of the Seas: A Tale by James Fenimore Cooper

I showed him a telegram instructing me to apply to him for a special passport enabling me to return when my leave expired.
— from With Steyn and De Wet by F. F. (Filippus Fourie) Pienaar

During the period of its tenancy the management of a corporation has full opportunity to display any ability and energy whereof it may be possessed; and such peculiarly efficient management should be capable of earning sufficient if not excessive rewards.
— from The Promise of American Life by Herbert David Croly

And St. Peter enjoins married persons to beware of anger, and to dwell together in love and harmony, as heirs together of the grace of life, “that their prayers be not hindered.”
— from True Christianity A Treatise on Sincere Repentence, True Faith, the Holy Walk of the True Christian, Etc. by Johann Arndt