I have actually {134} known gentlemen arrive at a large pic-nic at mid-day in complete evening dress, and pitied them with all my heart, compelled as they were to suffer, in tight black clothes, under a hot sun for eight hours, and dance after all in the same dress.
— 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

As they were, like some other committees, extremely dull and prolix in debate, this history may pursue the footsteps of Newman Noggs; thereby combining advantage with necessity; for it would have been necessary to do so under any circumstances, and necessity has no law, as all the world knows.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

On the contrary, ethical discourses and preaching will just as little produce a virtuous man as all the systems of æsthetics from Aristotle downwards have succeeded in producing a poet.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer

Mean while by the glimpse I stole of him, I could easily discover a person far from promising any such doughty performances as the storming of maidenheads generally requires, and whose flimsy consumptive texture gave him more the air of an invalid that was pressed, than of a volunteer, on such hot service.
— from Memoirs of Fanny Hill A New and Genuine Edition from the Original Text (London, 1749) by John Cleland

“In every gallery in Europe there are hideous pictures of blood, carnage, oozing brains, putrefaction—pictures portraying intolerable suffering—pictures alive with every conceivable horror, wrought out in dreadful detail—and similar pictures are being put on the canvas every day and publicly exhibited—without a growl from anybody—for they are innocent, they are inoffensive, being works of art.
— from 1601: Conversation as it was by the Social Fireside in the Time of the Tudors by Mark Twain

So she lived there for some time, and the dove came every day and provided her with all she needed, and it was a quiet good life.
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Wilhelm Grimm

She's the little girl who comes every day and prepares vegetables and washes dishes.
— from The Key Note: A Novel by Clara Louise Burnham

He did me the honour to invite me to come every day and pressed me in such fashion that, not being acquainted with any of these grandees so intimately that I believed myself competent to say that there was no one in France of my condition who lived so habitually or on such familiar terms with them, I was unable to refuse a civility so obliging.
— from A Gallant of Lorraine; vol. 1 of 2 François, Seigneur de Bassompierre, Marquis d'Haronel, Maréchal de France, 1579-1646 by H. Noel (Hugh Noel) Williams

In such cases each desire and passion, standing in a close and direct relationship to the spirit or self of the whole organism, is easily and willingly indrawn again at the appointed time; and there is little 91 or no struggle or agony.
— from The Drama of Love and Death: A Study of Human Evolution and Transfiguration by Edward Carpenter

First there appeared the poet Atillano, who has come from the Indies, and who may justly be called a prodigy of the world, as he proved himself to be on this occasion; for such is his poetic rage, that he utters { 302} a perfect torrent of Castilian verse on any subject proposed to him,[ 30 ] and, withal, in very remarkable style, with much taste and adornments from the Scriptures and classical authors, brought in most aptly, with comparisons, emphasis, digressions, and poetic figures, which strike his hearers with astonishment, many believing that it can only be done by devilish arts, for he never drops a foot or forgets a syllable....
— from The Court of Philip IV.: Spain in Decadence by Martin A. S. (Martin Andrew Sharp) Hume

“When I came home from the hospital last night, at an hour when all respectable characters, except doctors and police, should be in their warm beds, I beheld a light in Norman’s window, so methought I would see what Gravity was doing out of his bed at midnight—”
— from The Daisy Chain, or Aspirations by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge

He was no longer “Monsieur” Macquart, the clean-shaven workman, who wore his Sunday clothes every day and played the gentleman; he again became the big slovenly devil who had once speculated on his rags.
— from The Fortune of the Rougons by Émile Zola

The very words that import lying, falsehood, treason, dissimulation, covetousness, envy, detraction, and passion, were never heard of amongst them.
— from Montaigne and Shakspere by J. M. (John Mackinnon) Robertson

A Renaissance could easily dedicate a piquant novel to her dreamy, roguish eyes, her soft chin, and her sensual mouth, which would not be contradicted by the rich pearl ornaments in her hair and ears.
— from The Land of Riddles (Russia of To-day) by Hugo Ganz

So far, then, we have gained three things: a challenge; to be inscribed over the portals of certified knowledge, de omnibus dubitandum ; a basal truth, sum cogitans ; a criterion of truth, clara et distinct a perceptio .
— from History of Modern Philosophy From Nicolas of Cusa to the Present Time by Richard Falckenberg