Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

In this atmosphere the Pension Bertolini and Windy Corner appeared equally crude, and Lucy saw that her London career would estrange her a little from all that she had loved in the past.
— from A Room with a View by E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster

The Catholic and Episcopal Churches are less disturbed by this spectre than their non-liturgic brethren.
— from Music in the History of the Western Church With an Introduction on Religious Music Among Primitive and Ancient Peoples by Edward Dickinson

Elle peut être certaine que, dans tous les cas, je me comporterai avec elle comme avec le roi son père.
— from A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. 1, 1807-1809 From the Treaty of Fontainbleau to the Battle of Corunna by Charles Oman

I have before me a list of tunes, to which the organists of our churches and episcopal chapels are limited in their playing; and, what is singular, three of the chief clergymen of the churches confess they literally have no ear for music, and are utter strangers to what an octave means, and yet their authority decides.
— from The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 14, No. 403, December 5, 1829 by Various

All walked barefoot, clad in black sleeveless coats, and each carried a long wax candle.
— from Lady Good-for-Nothing: A Man's Portrait of a Woman by Arthur Quiller-Couch

Mr. Carlson, during the course of your testimony yesterday it appeared from your appearance on the witness stand that there was a desire on your part to reconsider and testify in answer to questions which were propounded to you by Mr. Wheeler, and also make more clear an explanation concerning a letter which was addressed to the chairman, Chairman Velde, when he was chairman of the full committee on Un-American Activities, dated June 19, 1954.
— from Investigation of Communist Activities in Seattle, Wash., Area, Hearings, Part 1 by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities

The country-dance was at length formed, and poor Mr. Harkin, the master of the ceremonies and Coryphaeus-in-ordinary of Loughrea, had, by dint of scarce less fatigue than I experienced in my steeplechase, by running hither and thither, imploring, beseeching, wheedling, coaxing, and even cursing, at length succeeded in assembling sixty-four souls in a double file upon the floor.
— from Jack Hinton: The Guardsman by Charles James Lever

"The houses are always furnished with lamps, of course, and everybody carries a lantern.
— from The Pot of Gold, and Other Stories by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

These consisted of Lieutenants Amelio Volez and Aurelius, a German, who were captured at El Caney, and Lieutenant Adolfo Aries and fourteen non-commissioned officers and privates.
— from Our War with Spain for Cuba's Freedom by Trumbull White

In the rooms are gathered all the beautiful things which go to make up a pretty house; carpets and curtains, and easy chairs and lovely plush-covered sofas, and pictures, and books, and flowers, and birds.
— from The Pansy Magazine, February 1886 by Various