Up betimes, and it being a very fine frosty day, I and my boy walked to White Hall, and there to the Chappell, where one Dr. Beaumont’ preached a good sermon, and afterwards a brave anthem upon the 150 Psalm, where upon the word “trumpet” very good musique was made.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Voltaire, while he appeared to believe in God, never really believed in anything but the devil; since his pretended deity is a malicious being, who, according to him, had no pleasure but in evil.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

To induce him to renounce these sources of satisfaction, everything relating to these functions is declared indecent and must be concealed.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud

“Well, we’ve turned the corner now,” Dounia interrupted, “and my brother won’t see us.
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Dupes indeed are many; but of all dupes there is none so fatally situated as he who lives in undue terror of being duped.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

I seized a large man of war, tied a cable to the prow, and, lifting up the anchors, I stripped myself, put my clothes (together with my coverlet, which I carried under my arm) into the vessel, and, drawing it after me, between wading and swimming arrived at the royal port of Blefuscu, where the people had long expected me: they lent me two guides to direct me to the capital city, which is of the same name.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift

When we ’uz mos’ down to de head er de islan’ a man begin to come aft wid de lantern, I see it warn’t no use fer to wait, so I slid overboard en struck out fer de islan’.
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

ANT: Prolong, continue, revive, develop, increase, aggravate, magnify, brew, ferment, rage, extend, enlarge, amplify, raise, enhance.
— from A Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms or, Synonyms and Words of Opposite Meaning by Samuel Fallows

It was all done in a moment, but there are so many near escapes.
— from A Little Girl in Old Philadelphia by Amanda M. Douglas

Nebber struck nuffin’ lek dis in all mah bawn days—no, sar!”
— from Frank Merriwell's Alarm; Or, Doing His Best by Burt L. Standish

I didn't mean to kill him, it was just done in a moment; but he died from it.
— from The Curse of Carne's Hold: A Tale of Adventure by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

11 In fine, it is a symbol that I never took the walk which was to dust the cobwebs from my brain and make me just like all the other persons, thick about me, who grow up, and mate, and beget, and die, in the incurious fashion of oxen, without ever wondering if there is any plausible reason for doing it; and my brief progress was upon the surface very like that of the bedeviled fellow in Les Facheux .
— from The Cords of Vanity: A Comedy of Shirking by James Branch Cabell

We have come to recognize that more than eight hours a day is a mistake, but there are many people who cannot work more than a four-hour day.
— from Psychotherapy Including the History of the Use of Mental Influence, Directly and Indirectly, in Healing and the Principles for the Application of Energies Derived from the Mind to the Treatment of Disease by James J. (James Joseph) Walsh

"We are at your disposal, I and my brother, whenever you have need of us—our friends also.
— from A Nest of Spies by Pierre Souvestre

But Christina had fulfilled the promise of her girlhood, and developed into a magnificent beauty.
— from The End of a Coil by Susan Warner

Now I shall not be obliged to do it any more, because I am never going back to the Cabaret de Biribi."
— from The Girl Philippa by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers

Their device is and must be: Live and let live!
— from Problematic Characters: A Novel by Friedrich Spielhagen

Now ninety degrees is a mighty big distance in the sky.
— from Earth and Sky Every Child Should Know Easy studies of the earth and the stars for any time and place by Julia Ellen Rogers