We speak of things which are now shameful, and although we try, as well as we are able, to conceive them as they were before they became shameful, yet necessity compels us rather to limit our discussion to the bounds set by modesty than to extend it as our moderate faculty of discourse might suggest.
— from The City of God, Volume II by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

'Tis but Slavonic kin among themselves contending, An ancient household strife, oft judged but still unending, A question which, be sure, ye never can decide.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 358, August 1845 by Various

But then, to be sure, your name counterbalances a thousand or so of their calibre; and whatever you do, or wherever you go, there I follow with pleasure.
— from Letters of Felix Mendelssohn to Ignaz and Charlotte Moscheles by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

you may be sure you never can be prosecuted,"—thereby, as he acknowledges, "taking away what must doubtless have most powerfully enforced her consent.
— from Memoirs of the Court of George IV. 1820-1830 (Vol 1) From the Original Family Documents by Buckingham and Chandos, Richard Plantagenet Temple Nugent Brydges Chandos Grenville, Duke of

The Master of the Rolls thus characterised the law which justifies the robbery of the tenants by unscrupulous and vindictive landlords:— 'Even if the Rev. Dr. O'Fay had no claim except as tenant from year to year, I have no hesitation in stating that, although in point of law on the authorities I have referred to, and particularly the case of Felling v. Armitage, the petitioner's suit could not be sustained, yet noticing can be more repugnant to the principles of natural justice than that a landlord should look on at a great expenditure carried on by a tenant from year to year, without warning the tenant of
— from The Land-War in Ireland: A History for the Times by James Godkin

Before the discovery of the magnetic needle, such accuracy as is necessary at present would have been superfluous; yet naval commanders must long before have had some means of distinguishing at least the twelve winds then defined, though no traces of them are to be found in the works which have been accidentally preserved to us.
— from A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume 2 (of 2) by Johann Beckmann

This was Isabel Martin, who was allowed her erratic way because she took it, and because, it had always been said, "You never could tell what Isabel would do next, only she never meant the least o' harm."
— from Country Neighbors by Alice Brown

Boy Selwyn You Never Can Tell Shaw Officer 666 McHugh Broadway Jones Cohan The Woman DeMille
— from More Portmanteau Plays by Stuart Walker