No form which human folly takes is so richly and exquisitely laughable as the spectacle of an Utilitarian in a dilemma.
— from Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches — Volume 2 by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron

“I must now go,” said the doctor; “but I shall return again ere long.
— from Chetwynd Calverley New Edition, 1877 by William Harrison Ainsworth

The story of Madam Johnson's revolt, and her triumph, is preserved to us in such real and earnest language, and was such a vital thing to the actors in the little play, that it seems almost irreverent to regard it as a farce, yet none to-day could read of it without a sense of absurdity, and we may as well laugh frankly and freely at the episode.
— from Two Centuries of Costume in America, Volume 1 (1620-1820) by Alice Morse Earle