Laevsky drank a great deal and at unsuitable times; he played cards, despised his work, lived beyond his means, frequently made use of unseemly expressions in conversation, walked about the streets in his slippers, and quarrelled with Nadyezhda Fyodorovna before other people—and Samoylenko did not like this.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Up, and to my chamber, and there I up and down in the house spent the morning getting things ready against noon, when come Mr. Cooper, Hales, Harris, Mr. Butler, that wrote Hudibras, and Mr. Cooper’s cozen Jacke; and by and by comes Mr. Reeves and his wife, whom I never saw before: and there we dined: a good dinner, and company that pleased me mightily, being all eminent men in their way.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

We hear that the Dutch are gone down again; and thanks be to God!
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Vogler, who lately conducted the mass, is barren and frivolous—a man who imagines he can do a great deal, and does very little.
— from The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Volume 01 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

But he drank a good deal, and there were some nasty stories told of him and a girl down at the fishing village.
— from Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

The signora told me, one day, a good deal about their lives up to this period.
— from Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

With dog and gun, Day after day he track'd the nimble deer Through all the tangled mazes of the forest.”
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

"Therefore you have done a great deed, as well as a brave one, in saving my life," added the Queen.
— from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

An old man is holding out to a young lad flags and sceptres representing Power and Dominion; also glittering diamonds, a golden harp, a name and a book, emblematic, respectively, of wealth, pleasure, fame and knowledge.
— from A Baptist Abroad: Travels and Adventures of Europe and all Bible Lands by Walter Andrew Whittle

Their tears were among the most heartfelt shed over the courageous one whose dreams were delusions and great deeds ashes.
— from Through the Gates of Old Romance by Weymer Jay Mills

While the above was in preparation I received a letter from Lord Ashley, urging me to hold out expectations that Government would make further reductions in the Sunday duty, admitting that we “had already done a great deal,” and, oddly enough, inferring therefrom that we could do much more.
— from The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the History of Penny Postage, Vol. 2 (of 2) by Hill, Rowland, Sir

It was perhaps nearly nine at night; he had eaten nothing since lunch, he had drunk a good deal, and he was exhausted by emotion, when the thought of Houston came into his head.
— from The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 10 by Robert Louis Stevenson

He is like a man building a house, who digs and goes deep, and lays the foundation on the rock; and when a flood comes, the torrent bursts upon that house, but is unable to shake it, because it is securely built. 006:049
— from Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech, Luke by Richard Francis Weymouth

Every one of them would like to do a good deed and steal some one's wife.
— from So Runs the World by Henryk Sienkiewicz

And I'd be a real Whittaker, a man who should stand for somethin', as my dad and granddad did afore me.
— from Cy Whittaker's Place by Joseph Crosby Lincoln

Tea was my companion—at first the ordinary black tea, made in the usual way, not too strong: but I drank a good deal, and increased its strength as I went on.
— from In a Glass Darkly, v. 1/3 by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

get money—though morality dies, and society is dishonored, and God defied, and the doom of the destroyed opens before you—get money!
— from The Abominations of Modern Society by T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt) Talmage