not all the world’s curses, for two pence he shall get at any time the prayers of some poor body that is worth a 1000 of all their curses; Lord Norwich drawing a tooth at a health.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

And as in a dream did our hero see a vestibule where couriers were being handed dispatches, and then a salon which he crossed with the thought, “I suppose I am not to be allowed a trial, but shall be sent straight to Siberia!”
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

The crier was sent round, in the morning, to proclaim the entertainments with the sound of bell in all the thoroughfares; and extra bills of three feet long by nine inches wide, were dispersed in all directions, flung down all the areas, thrust under all the knockers, and developed in all the shops.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

Seek out Isaac of York—here is that will pay for horse and man—let him have this scroll.—I know not if it be of Heaven the spirit which inspires me, but most truly do I judge that I am not to die this death, and that a champion will be raised up for me.
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott

The day after their arrival there was a heavy fall of rain, and in the night the water came through in the corridor and in the nursery, so that the beds had to be carried into the drawing-room.
— from Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

There are too, some which are not demonstrated from their not standing in need of demonstration, and these are laid down differently by different people; but Chrysippus enumerates five kinds, which serve as the foundation for every kind of argument; and which are assumed in conclusive arguments properly so called, and in syllogisms, and in modes.
— from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius

Every day, at the appointed hours, the principal officers of the state, the army, and the household, approaching the person of their sovereign with bended knees and a composed countenance, offered their respectful homage as seriously as if he had been still alive.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

"The theatre of all my actions is fallen," said an antique personage when his chief friend was dead; and they are fortunate who get a theatre where the audience demands their best.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

Dāsan forfeited all claim to his father’s estate, and his descendants are therefore all beggars.
— from Omens and Superstitions of Southern India by Edgar Thurston

Everywhere were evidences of rich taste in decoration, and the apartment was doubtless in an abode of great wealth.
— from When a Cobbler Ruled the King by Augusta Huiell Seaman

It is only when the grace of repentance is granted that the returning child of God becomes at the same time alive to the sinfulness of those pleasures which she has cultivated the habit of enjoying, and to the mournful fact of having lost all taste for those simple pleasures which are the only safe ones, because they alone leave the mind free for the exercise of devotion, and the affections warm and fresh for the contemplation of "the things that belong to our peace."
— from The Young Lady's Mentor A Guide to the Formation of Character. In a Series of Letters to Her Unknown Friends by Anonymous

It is hard enough to crucify all natural desires and lead a life of self-abnegation; but for the spirit, in order to be purified, to be obliged to enter into body after body, each subject to disease, misery, and death, and then after a long series of migrations to be virtually annihilated as the highest consummation of happiness, gives one but a poor conception of the efforts of the proudest unaided intellect to arrive at a knowledge of God and immortal bliss.
— from Beacon Lights of History, Volume 01: The Old Pagan Civilizations by John Lord

When we come to estimate the amount of gold we are met with a difficulty, as there are many varieties of MANS in India, the variation being as much as from 19 lbs.
— from A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India by Nunes, Fernão, active 16th century

The General Assembly, being most desirous and solicitous, not onely of the establishment and preservation of the Form of Kirk-government in this Kingdome, according to the Word of GOD, Books of Discipline, Acts of Generall Assemblies, and Nationall Covenant; But also of an Uniformity in Kirk-government betwixt these Kingdomes now more straitly and strongly united by the late Solemne League and Covenant: And considering, That as in former times there did, so hereafter there may arise through the neernesse of Contagion, manifold mischiefs to this Kirk from a corrupt Form of Government in the Kirk of England : Like as the precious opportunity of bringing the Kirks of Christ in all the three Kingdoms, to an Uniformity in Kirk-government, being the happinesse of the present times above the former; which may also by the blessing of God, prove an effectuall meane, and a good foundation to prepare for a safe and well-grounded Pacification, by removing the cause from which the present Pressures and bloodie Wars did originally proceed: And now the Assembly having thrice read, and diligently examined the Propositions (hereunto annexed) concerning the officers, Assemblies, and Government of the Kirk; and concerning the Ordination of Ministers, brought unto us as the results of the long and learned Debates of the Assembly of Divines sitting at Westminster , and of the Treaty of Uniformity with the Commissioners of this Kirk there residing; After mature deliberation, and after tymous calling upon and warning of all who have any exceptions against the same, to make them known, that they might [pg 270] receive satisfaction, Doth Agree to, and Approve the Propositions aforementioned touching Kirk-government and Ordination, and doth hereby Authorize the Commissioners of this Assembly who are to meet at Edinburgh , to agree to, and conclude in the name of this Assembly, an Uniformitie betwixt the Kirks in both Kingdoms in the aforementioned particulars, so soon as the same shall be ratified, without any substantiall alteration, by an Ordinance of the Honourable Houses of the Parliament of England : Which Ratification shall be timely intimate and made known by the Commissioners of this Kirk residing at London .
— from The Acts Of The General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland by Church of Scotland. General Assembly

It had gone dark, and the air was not quite so exhausted—a little freshness of scent from the trees in the squares and parks mingled with the fumes of dung and petrol.
— from The Works of John Galsworthy An Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of Galsworthy by John Galsworthy

It was as God's Representative Christ died as truly as He died as man's Representative.
— from The Expositor's Bible: The First Epistle to the Corinthians by Marcus Dods

He seemed friendly disposed and talkative, and as he too was going to
— from Sir Ludar A Story of the Days of the Great Queen Bess by Talbot Baines Reed