A more considerable degree of wandering attended the third repetition; and, after completing the fourth, she immediately added, “Only think, my dear, of my having got that frightful great rent in my best Mechlin so charmingly mended, before I left Bath, that one can hardly see where it was.
— from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn’t read.
— from The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People by Oscar Wilde

Then home to dinner, and then to church again, and going home I found Greatorex (whom I expected today at dinner) come to see me, and so he and I in my chamber drinking of wine and eating of anchovies an hour or two, discoursing of many things in mathematics, and among others he showed me how it comes to pass the strength that levers have, and he showed me that what is got as to matter of strength is lost by them as to matter of time.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

In the mean while Theodore having seen my Carriage drive off with the false Agnes, returned joyfully to the Village.
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis

At every cross street were officers on elephants, "men in gilt Mambrino helmets and mountebank costumes, decked out with triple buckram capes, and shoulder lappets, and paltry embroidery."
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 120, October, 1867 A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics by Various

These drop through the apertures of the plate and are conveyed to the diffusion batteries, as by a movable chute D oscillated with a jigging motion through suitable gearing.
— from A Practical Handbook on the Distillation of Alcohol from Farm Products by F. B. (Frederic B.) Wright

We must cut down on waste.
— from State of the Union Addresses (1790-2006) by United States. Presidents

A debate ensued as to the most convenient day on which to fix, which presently branched off into a violent dispute as to whether the invitation in question was intended as a compliment to Tom or his wife; each maintaining the opinion, that the honour of the invitation was all due to themselves.
— from The Younger Sister: A Novel, Volumes 1-3 by Mrs. (Catherine-Anne Austen) Hubback

Moren than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read.
— from Miscellaneous Aphorisms; The Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde

Thereafter he adopted the plain morocco covers decorated only with the stamps of his arms with which all book-lovers are familiar.
— from Old Picture Books, With Other Essays on Bookish Subjects by Alfred W. (Alfred William) Pollard

Then he added, in a gentler tone: "I would I might know who was the bonny maid that bent over me and gave me cooling drops of water and bathed my face and brow."
— from Maid Sally by Harriet A. (Harriet Anna) Cheever

Instead of making money hand over hand as folks said almost any man could do out West, I sunk all I put in.
— from Ann Boyd: A Novel by Will N. (Will Nathaniel) Harben

That the metal of the magnet itself might be substituted for the moving cylinder, disc, or wire, seemed an inevitable consequence, and yet one which would exhibit the effects of magneto-electric induction in a striking form.
— from Experimental Researches in Electricity, Volume 1 by Michael Faraday