Another requisite for a good letter is a clear, concise style.
— from The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness A Complete Hand Book for the Use of the Lady in Polite Society by Florence Hartley

“Truly, fair lords,” said he, “there is good lodging in a castle hard by, but it is a custom there that none shall lodge therein save ye first joust with two knights, and as soon as ye be within, ye shall find your match.”
— from The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by Knowles, James, Sir

Whatever the success may prove, I shall never repent of an undertaking in which I have experienced the candour and friendship of so many persons of merit; and in which I hope to pass some of those years of youth that are generally lost in a circle of follies, after a manner neither wholly unuseful to others, nor disagreeable to myself.
— from The Iliad by Homer

Forsooth, sirs, said the herdmen, hereby is good lodging in a castle; but there is such a custom that there shall no knight be harboured but if he joust with two knights, and if he be but one knight he must joust with two.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir

As time went on, men increased in number, and tilled the ground, living in a common habitation, which they protected by walls against wild beasts; but the several families retained the laws and customs which they separately received from their first parents.
— from Laws by Plato

But they have something to say, likewise, of the Harmonic Meeting at the Sol's Arms, where the sound of the piano through the partly opened windows jingles out into the court, and where Little Swills, after keeping the lovers of harmony in a roar like a very Yorick, may now be heard taking the gruff line in a concerted piece and sentimentally adjuring his friends and patrons to "Listen, listen, listen, tew the wa-ter fall!"
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

But from the time that a judge has refused to apply any given law in a case, that law loses a portion of its moral cogency.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville

Dawa, I may perhaps mention here, though I shall have occasion to refer to the matter at greater length in another chapte
— from Three Years in Tibet by Ekai Kawaguchi

I was giving lessons in a certain house.
— from In Vain by Henryk Sienkiewicz

Since the escaping vapors would rapidly pass into the solid state and settle down upon the flanks of the crater-cones or vents, we would observe in general little if any change in an object unless we chanced to be looking at it at the time of the eruption, when it might appear to be temporarily obscured by a veil of vapors.
— from Astronomy for Young Folks by Isabel Martin Lewis

In spite of the fact that Prince Hohenhauer was one of the greatest landlords in all Christendom he was a liberal in politics from the first and the author of several of the reform laws in behalf of the people which from time to time were forced upon the most conservative monarch in Europe.
— from Black Oxen by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

We have occasionally some slight alarms, but, with a little skill and good luck, I am certain of reaching the port in safety.
— from Memoirs, Correspondence and Manuscripts of General Lafayette by Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de

Mr. Hunter found that a hive grew lighter in a cold than in a warm week; he found also, that in three months (from November 10th to February 9th) a single hive lost 72 oz. 1½ dram
— from An Introduction to Entomology: Vol. 2 or Elements of the Natural History of the Insects by William Kirby

A toy gun lay in a corner beside a gilt wooden cannon.
— from Traffics and Discoveries by Rudyard Kipling

Everybody understands old Vereker's rage for a pretty face, though I, for one, can never see good looks in a common person.
— from Latter-Day Sweethearts by Harrison, Burton, Mrs.

Take off the green leaves, if any; cut the stem off and the leaf in two when too long, shake well in a cloth to dry, and put in your salad bowl, which you have previously rubbed with a piece of garlic; add in your salad, a teaspoonful of salt, quarter one of pepper, 5 tablespoonfuls of oil, 2 of vinegar; rub a piece of garlic on two crusts of bread, each about the size of a walnut; add them to your salad, which you stir well for a few minutes with a spoon and fork, and serve.
— from Soyer's Culinary Campaign: Being Historical Reminiscences of the Late War. With The Plain Art of Cookery for Military and Civil Institutions by Alexis Soyer

[8] General Lafayette, in a communication made to the author respecting this battle, expresses himself thus: "Never was General Washington greater in war than in this action.
— from The Life of George Washington, Vol. 3 Commander in Chief of the American Forces During the War which Established the Independence of his Country and First President of the United States by John Marshall