Capriciously did she bend her head on one side, and dance up insidious——Then ’tis time to dance off, quoth I; so changing only partners and tunes, I danced it away from Lunel to Montpellier ——from thence to Pesçnas, Beziers ——I danced it along through Narbonne, Carcasson, and Castle Naudairy, till at last I danced myself into Perdrillo ’s pavillion, where pulling out a paper of black 69 lines, that I might go on straight forwards, without digression or parenthesis, in my uncle Toby ’s amours—— I begun thus—— C H A P. XXV ——B UT softly——for in these sportive plains, and under this genial sun, where at this instant all flesh is running out piping, fiddling, and dancing to the vintage, and every step that’s taken, the judgment is surprised by the imagination, I defy, notwithstanding all that has been said upon straight lines * in sundry pages of my book—I defy the best cabbage planter that ever existed, whether he plants backwards or forwards, it makes little difference in the account (except that he will have more to answer for in the one case than in the other)—I defy him to go on coolly, critically, and canonically, planting his cabbages one by one, in straight lines, and * Vid.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

If I had gained as much as I had lost I should probably have contented myself with giving her ten louis, but I fancied I was losing the fifty louis on a card.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

I have no doubt that time discriminates between the good and the bad; and when at last I shall plant, I shall be less likely to be disappointed.
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

It used to remind me of those curious lines in some play—Hamlet, I think—how do they run?— "Like the painting of a sorrow, A face without a heart."
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Thirdly, and lastly, In some places, as at Amsterdam, Hamburg, Venice, etc. foreign bills of exchange are paid in what they call bank money; while in others, as at London, Lisbon, Antwerp, Leghorn, etc.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Dotted lines in symmetrical perspective mark orchards that are buried and chilled in the turbid flood.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales With Condensed Novels, Spanish and American Legends, and Earlier Papers by Bret Harte

When Congress met on May 22, for that session which had been called to provide for war, all was peace and harmony; John Randolph was loudest in singing praises of the new President, and no {394} one ventured to gainsay him.
— from The Life of Albert Gallatin by Henry Adams

Garland laughed in sudden perception of their earnestness.
— from McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3, August, 1893 by Various

Such Incidents as these make some Ladies wholly absent themselves from the Play-House; and others never miss the first Day of a Play, lest it should prove too luscious to admit their going with any Countenance to it on the second.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

And I have looked into some pleasant homes during this brief visit.
— from Lucy Larcom: Life, Letters, and Diary by Daniel Dulany Addison

In August a letter involving similar principles was addressed by General R. E. Lee to the commanding General at Washington, General Halleck, making inquiries as to the truth of the case of William B. Mumford, reported to have been murdered at New Orleans by Major-General Benjamin F. Butler, and of Colonel John Owens, reported to have been murdered in Missouri by order of Major-General Pope.
— from The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Volume 2 by Jefferson Davis

she sighed, "I wish God would let us die to-night, life is so perfect.
— from Mal Moulée: A Novel by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

And when I looked at her again (she couldn't have made me this time, for she was unaware of me, lost in some profound meditation of her own), when I looked at her again my anger and my resentment died with a sort of struggle and a pang.
— from The Belfry by May Sinclair

Being come also to Flanders, he caused the earle, the French king, and other of his fréends, among whome also the emperour was one, to write vnto the king in his behalfe; but all in vaine: for nothing could be obteined from him, of which the Normans had no liking, wherevpon the earle and his sonnes changed their minds, obteined aid, and inuaded the land in sundry places.
— from Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volume 1, Complete by William Harrison