This place seems to be the middle 359 space, between the lower heavens and the internal parts of the earth, wherein disorder, imperfection, mutation, mortality, destruction, and corruption, are principally found.
— from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon

At the office all the morning; dined at home, and after dinner to Fleet Street, with my sword to Mr. Brigden (lately made Captain of the Auxiliaries) to be refreshed, and with him to an ale-house, where I met Mr. Davenport; and after some talk of Cromwell, Ireton and Bradshaw’s bodies being taken out of their graves to-day, [“The bodies of Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton, John Bradshaw, and Thomas Pride, were dug up out of their graves to be hanged at Tyburn, and buried under the gallows.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

1 Such, however, as, influenced by envy and calumny, have persuaded you, and those who, being themselves persuaded, have persuaded others, all these are most difficult to deal with; for it is not possible to bring any of them forward here, nor to confute any; but it is altogether necessary to fight, as it were with a shadow, in making my defense, and to convict when there is no one to answer.
— from Apology, Crito, and Phaedo of Socrates by Plato

One day, having said to those who looked to her: “Tis to much purpose that you take all this pains to prevent me; you may indeed make me die an ill death, but to keep me from dying is not in your power”; she in a sudden phrenzy started from a chair whereon she sat, and with all her force dashed her head against the wall, by which blow being laid flat in a swoon, and very much wounded, after they had again with great ado brought her to herself: “I told you,” said she, “that if you refused me some easy way of dying, I should find out another, how painful soever.”
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

It moved me deeply, and The Mill on the Floss is another agony.
— from The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years by Ida Husted Harper

You are leaving your friends, but you will have a father in me, my dear, and a mother in Mrs. Squeers.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

That which arises from the more solid improvements of agriculture is much more durable, and cannot be destroyed but by those more violent convulsions occasioned by the depredations of hostile and barbarous nations continued for a century or two together; such as those that happened for some time before and after the fall of the Roman empire in the western provinces of Europe.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

"Why, man alive, that church is in my mind day and night.
— from Stories of the Foot-hills by Margaret Collier Graham

"I cannot refrain from taking this opportunity of expressing confidentially to your Imperial Majesty my deep anxiety for the preservation of the peace of Europe, nor can I conceal from myself how essentially that great object must depend upon the course which your Imperial Majesty may be advised to take.
— from The Letters of Queen Victoria : A Selection from Her Majesty's Correspondence between the Years 1837 and 1861 Volume 3, 1854-1861 by Queen of Great Britain Victoria

“We’ll easily agree that Lentala is much more dignified and reserved than Beela.” Nod.
— from Lentala of the South Seas: The Romantic Tale of a Lost Colony by W. C. Morrow

“I turned the thing over in my mind, Doctor, and it seemed quite a reasonable proposition.
— from The Mountain of Fears by Henry C. (Henry Cottrell) Rowland

I met M. Delille a few days after the appearance of the fifth of these articles, and expressed my indignation.
— from The Galaxy Vol. 23, No. 1 by Various

On the fourth day of the proceedings I made my début as a Parliamentary witness.
— from Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland by Joseph Tatlow

I was going pretty fast, for when I looked down, all the big buildings were sliding past me so swift that it made me dizzy, and before I really knew what had happened the umbrella settled down and stood me on my feet at Uncle Bob's front gate.
— from Sky Island Being the Further Exciting Adventures of Trot and Cap'n Bill After Their Visit to the Sea Fairies by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

I shall describe the sport exactly as I saw it, although an English friend assures me that there are certain ceremonies with a handkerchief, which make it much more decorous and graceful.
— from Our Old Home: A Series of English Sketches by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Arc. 71: “And the low world in measured motion draw, After the heavenly tune.”
— from Milton's Comus by John Milton