Up, and all the morning sitting at the office, where every body grown mighty cautious in what they do, or omit to do, and at noon comes Knepp, with design to dine with Lord Brouncker, but she being undressed, and there being: much company, dined with me; and after dinner I out with her, and carried her to the playhouse; and in the way did give her five guineas as a fairing, I having given her nothing a great while, and her coming hither sometimes having been matter of cost to her, and so I to St. James’s, but missed of the Duke of York, and so went back to the King’s playhouse, and saw “Rollo, Duke of Normandy,” which, for old acquaintance, pleased me pretty well, and so home and to my business,.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

In human works, though laboured on with pain, A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain; In God’s one single can its end produce; Yet serves to second too some other use.
— from An Essay on Man; Moral Essays and Satires by Alexander Pope

As they met so often, they perhaps smiled at the next meeting; then, seeing each other again and again, they felt as if they knew each other.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

‘Is it so nice as all that?’ asked the Mole shyly, though he was quite prepared to believe it as he leant back in his seat and surveyed the cushions, the oars, the rowlocks, and all the fascinating fittings, and felt the boat sway lightly under him.
— from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

There was a wild outbreak of anger below, and the mob swarmed in from all around, and there we were treed, and prisoners.
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

Between the physical and the moral sciences, lie intermediate sciences of life, where the territory is only grudgingly yielded to freedom of inquiry under the pressure of accomplished fact.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey

My gown is made very much like my blue one, which you always told me sat very well, with only these variations: the sleeves are short, the wrap fuller, the apron comes over it, and a band of the same completes the whole.
— from The Letters of Jane Austen Selected from the compilation of her great nephew, Edward, Lord Bradbourne by Jane Austen

The servant remounted the stairs to give the message to the doctor, and the moment she was out of sight the tailor and his wife carried the body swiftly after her, propped it up at the top of the staircase, and ran home as fast as their legs could carry them.
— from The Arabian Nights Entertainments by Andrew Lang

“And the Molly, Strand?” “Why, sir, the Molly seems to be breaking up fast; as well as I can see, she has broke in two just abaft the forechains, and cannot hold together in any shape at all many minutes longer.”
— from Jack Tier; Or, The Florida Reef by James Fenimore Cooper

He was a very sad little Piskey as he listened to the merriment of his little brother Piskeys, and the moon, sailing along the dark velvety blue of the midnight sky above the ruins of King Arthur’s Castle and Gardens, never looked down on such a woebegone little Piskey before.
— from North Cornwall Fairies and Legends by Enys Tregarthen

But when they stood by the stile where cattle were breathing softly, and the moon shone over the sheepfold like a shepherd's lantern, her love had grown wilful, and she had liked to say that she would go away with him.
— from Evelyn Innes by George Moore

The postman turned wearily away, and the Master stood looking after him, wondering what had come of late to his former cheery friend.
— from Bob, Son of Battle by Alfred Ollivant

And often now our fancy's flight doth wing its journey to that night, [126] That marks his lonely death amid the mountain snow.
— from By Trench and Trail in Song and Story by Angus Mackay

I answered, however, with the same admirable detachment from the smarting past that you had achieved, that my study window was particularly adapted to the appreciation of our neighbor's pear tree, because of its height from the ground.
— from The Passionate Friends by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

His journal, which is a standing monument of his genius and industry, was concealed, while writing, in his boots, and as each page became full, it was conveyed to a chest with a double bottom, and there secreted until he left prison 15 It is probable the existence of the journal was known to very few, if any, in prison, as the most serious consequences must have followed its discovery.
— from A Relic of the Revolution by Charles Herbert

Blosio, Pierio, Vida, famed for flow Of lofty eloquence of exhaustless vein; Mussuro, Lascari, and Navagero, And Andrew Maro, and the monk Severo.
— from Orlando Furioso by Lodovico Ariosto