At last I suggested that we might tear up one of our shirts, and by twisting the bits and tying them together, we might make a line long enough to reach the ground, and strong enough to haul up a thick rope.
— from Manco, the Peruvian Chief Or, An Englishman's Adventures in the Country of the Incas by William Henry Giles Kingston

As these offer the feeble mind a less laborious entertainment, they at first rival Poetry, and at length supplant her: they engross all that favour once shown to her; and, though but younger sisters, seize upon the elder’s birthright.
— from The Poems of Oliver Goldsmith by Oliver Goldsmith

—I swear to myself henceforth to take the following rules as eternal rules of my life: Every morning to pray to God, reservoir of all strength and all justice, to my father, to Mariette, and to Poe, as intercessors; to pray to them to grant me the necessary strength always to do my duty, and to grant to my mother a life long enough to enjoy my transformation; to work all day, or at least while my strength remains ; to trust in God, that is, in Justice itself, for the success of my projects; to make, every evening, a new prayer to God, asking life and strength for my mother and for myself; to divide all I earn into four parts,—one for current expenses, one for my creditors, one for my friends and one for my mother;—to obey the precepts of strictest sobriety, of which the first is the suppression of everything exciting, whatever it may be.
— from Baudelaire: His Prose and Poetry by Charles Baudelaire

(I've read that sentence over six times and it means a little less every time.)
— from The Diary of a Freshman by Charles Macomb Flandrau

As these offer the feeble mind a less laborious entertainment, they at first rival poetry, and at length supplant her: they engross all that favour once shown to her, and, though but younger sisters, seize upon the elder's birthright.
— from Dalziels' Illustrated Goldsmith by Oliver Goldsmith

He was not only the confidant of the first General, but of his two successors, Lainez and Borgia, he helped St. Charles Borromeo in his reforms at Milan, and lived long enough to rejoice on the day of his great master's beatification, 1609.
— from Heroic Spain by Elizabeth Boyle O'Reilly

Then he took meadow-grass (karan), and tied the long blades together, making a line long enough to reach down to earth.
— from Philippine Folk-Tales by Laura Estelle Watson Benedict

When the provisions are ready, they are slung on the backs of several pack oxen, the [Pg 9] younger boys taking charge of them, a boy to each ox, which they hold by a leather or grass rope converted into reins by being passed through the poor animal's nose and both ends tied together, making a loop long enough to pass over his horns on to his neck.
— from Basutoland: Its Legends and Customs by Minnie Martin

Draw the thong up at the middle, where it crosses the toe hole, to make a loop large enough to admit the toe under it, but not large enough to permit the toe to slide forward against the forward cross-bar.
— from Packing and Portaging by Dillon Wallace

I don' guess Mr. Abe lived long enough ter help us niggers much.
— from Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Volume I, Alabama Narratives by United States. Work Projects Administration