Next day our rehearsal went off admirably, and the day after the ambassador spoke to me as follows: “So far as I can see, what you are aiming at in this intrigue is the satisfying of your desires without doing any harm to the lady’s reputation.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

They pawed their blouses, both of black satin, two and nine a yard, waiting for their teas to draw, and two and seven.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

It may be added that there is often a further difficulty in ascertaining the amount of compensation due: for this frequently involves a comparison of things essentially disparate, and there are some kinds of harm which it seems impossible to compensate.
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick

Notwithstanding this intelligence, I was inclinable to impute some part of the charge to Medlar's revenge for the liberties taken with him at dinner; and therefore, as soon as I could disengage myself, applied to Wagtail for his opinion of the character in question, resolved to compare their accounts, allowing for the prejudice of each, and to form my judgment upon both, without adhering strictly to either.
— from The Adventures of Roderick Random by T. (Tobias) Smollett

They have fought their way to triumph over the road of difficulty and through all sorts of opposition.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

If skirts are short, don't wear them two inches shorter than any one else's; if they are long, don't go down the street dragging a train and sweeping the dirt up on the under-flouncings.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post

For the concept of a supreme Cause possessing intelligence (though not reaching far enough for a Theology) thus acquires sufficient reality for the reflective Judgement, but it is not required as the basis of the moral proof; nor does this latter serve to complete as a proof the former, which does not by itself point to morality at all, by means of an argument developed according to a single principle.
— from Kant's Critique of Judgement by Immanuel Kant

Everything contributed to its tragic majesty at that supreme moment; a thousand mysterious crashes in the air, the breath of armed masses set in movement in the streets which were not visible, the intermittent gallop of cavalry, the heavy shock of artillery on the march, the firing by squads, and the cannonades crossing each other in the labyrinth of Paris, the smokes of battle mounting all gilded above the roofs, indescribable and vaguely terrible cries, lightnings of menace everywhere, the tocsin of Saint-Merry, which now had the accents of a sob, the mildness of the weather, the splendor of the sky filled with sun and clouds, the beauty of the day, and the alarming silence of the houses.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

You see, she was left an orphan, and her uncle that raised her, not bein’ well off, give her what schoolin’ he could, an’ then when she was about sixteen year old he got her first the summer school in our deestric, and then, as she suited the folks, the d’rectors they let her have it fur the winter.
— from McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3, August, 1893 by Various

But we desire that you first weigh carefully such matters as are appropriate to your deliberations and then act solely in accordance with your own interests.
— from Procopius History of the Wars, Books V. and VI. by Procopius

It was a beast "dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth:
— from Birth of a Reformation; Or, The Life and Labors of Daniel S. Warner by A. L. (Andrew L.) Byers

Many were there to brand him as a "failure," just as this thoughtless sophomore had done, and to all such critics his reply was silence.
— from Boys' Book of Famous Soldiers by J. Walker (Joseph Walker) McSpadden

Ten minutes later another dark form emerged from another window of the dormitory and took a similar course.
— from Hal Kenyon Disappears by Gordon (Adventure story writer) Stuart

If he loses his temper and answers in like sort, the door is shut on him with some Parthian jeer, and, as he walks dejectedly away, the agent says—"Ah, it's a pity you offended that fellow.
— from Fifteen Chapters of Autobiography by George William Erskine Russell

The crows flew down about them, and she began to caress and talk 242 to them as usual.
— from Tales of Folk and Fairies by Katharine Pyle