Though need make many poets, and some such As art and nature have not better'd much; Yet ours for want hath not so loved the stage, As he dare serve the ill customs of the age, Or purchase your delight at such a rate, As, for it, he himself must justly hate: To make a child now swaddled, to proceed Man, and then shoot up, in one beard and weed, Past threescore years; or, with three rusty swords, And help of some few foot and half-foot words, Fight over York and Lancaster's king jars, And in the tyring-house bring wounds to scars.
— from Every Man in His Humor by Ben Jonson

It was not so much for fear of the future, and for myself, that I was curious in this experiment, but because it falls out in mine, as it does in many other families, that the women store up such little trumperies for the service of the people, using the same recipe in fifty several diseases, and such a recipe as they will not take themselves, and yet triumph when they happen to be successful.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

He drank, and sung, and roared; and when I gave him a gentle hint of the indecency of his actions, he fell into a violent passion, swore many oaths, called me rascal, and struck me.”
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

But my soul wanders; I demand it back To meditate amongst decay, and stand A ruin amidst ruins; there to track Fall'n states and buried greatness, o'er a land Which WAS the mightiest in its old command, And IS the loveliest, and must ever be The master-mould of Nature's heavenly hand, Wherein were cast the heroic and the free, The beautiful, the brave—the lords of earth and sea. XXVI.
— from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

The rivulet, which had hitherto accompanied them, now expanded into a river; and, flowing deeply and silently along, reflected, as in a mirror, the blackness of the impending shades.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

The Lutheran pastor, in black cap and white bands, delivers a short address, reads a few passages from the Scriptures, and engages in prayer.
— from A Captive at Carlsruhe and Other German Prison Camps by Joseph Lee

Without another syllable she turned away and joined once more the throng of merrymakers, where she danced and sprang about recklessly a few times, and then sat down a little distance away by herself, with a face that betrayed clearly how hurt she was at the rebuff.
— from Seldwyla Folks: Three Singular Tales by Gottfried Keller

To use his own words: "That war has now disclosed a situation as regards armaments, and reserves of guns, ammunition, stores and clothing, and as regards the power of output of material of war in emergency which is, in my opinion, full of peril to the Empire; and I, therefore, think it my duty, without waiting to elaborate details, to lay before you at once the state of affairs, and to make proposals, to which I invite, through you, the earnest and immediate attention of the Secretary of State."
— from History of the War in South Africa 1899-1902 v. 1 (of 4) Compiled by Direction of His Majesty's Government by Great Britain. War Office

"'Well,' he replied, 'it shows the proper size of objects at a distance—how to draw a street, a road, a distant hill or tree, etc.
— from The Strand Magazine, Vol. 07, Issue 39, March 1894 An Illustrated Monthly by Various

Soon after disbanding at Syracuse a regimental association was formed which meets each year on the 19th of September, in commemoration of the date of muster into the service of the general government.
— from Company G A Record of the Services of One Company of the 157th N. Y. Vols. in the War of the Rebellion from Sept. 19, 1862, to July 10, 1865 by A. R. (Albert Rowe) Barlow

It is true that the Christians had usually to face odds in numbers; but they had strong positions to defend, and such a reputation as fighting men, that the Kurds themselves admitted that when you went against the men of Tyari and Tkhuma, it was well to have odds of five to one in numbers on your side.
— from The Cradle of Mankind; Life in Eastern Kurdistan by Edgar Thomas Ainger Wigram

So for long, sleepy as I was, I dozed and started and rolled and lay awake, wondering about the little ship in the bar-parlour, and Mr. Cripps, and the pale man, and the watch with the M on it.
— from The Hole in the Wall by Arthur Morrison

Nobody feels very well the day after such a race as that."
— from Winter Fun by William O. Stoddard