After a quarter of an hour he came and said to me,— “Certain persons have asked me to beg you to stay a few days longer, or at least to sup here to-morrow night.”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

In some cases compulsory habit alone has sufficed to produce such inherited mental changes; in other cases compulsory habit has done nothing, and all has been the result of selection, pursued both methodically and unconsciously; but in most cases, probably, habit and selection have acted together.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

The man of faith, the “believer” of any sort, is necessarily a dependent man—such a man cannot posit himself as a goal, nor can he find goals within himself.
— from The Antichrist by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

We went into the head-mistress’s private room, and Madame Cornelis paid her a hundred guineas in advance, and obtained a receipt.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

“Besides, sir,” says he, “I promise you I have as good an inclination to the cause as any man can possibly have; and go I will, whether you admit me to go in your company or not.” Jones, who was as much pleased with Partridge as Partridge could be with him, and who had not consulted his own inclination but the good of the other in desiring him to stay behind, when he found his friend so resolute, at last gave his consent; but then recollecting himself, he said, “Perhaps, Mr Partridge, you think I shall be able to support you, but I really am not;” and then taking out his purse, he told out nine guineas, which he declared were his whole fortune.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

The kind way in which Mr. Coventry proposed him as “the fittest man in England” for the office, and the Duke of York’s expressed approval, greatly pleased him.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Mas, como pudiera hablar, And if its tongue was free le había algo de abonar you would hear it agree, la estatua de Don Gonzalo. that statue of Don Gonzalo.
— from Don Juan Tenorio by José Zorrilla

In 1879, Charles Halstead, of New York, was granted the first United States patent on a metal coffee pot having a china interior.
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

Then informed ourselves where we might have some creame, and they guided us to one Goody Best’s, a little out of the towne towards London road, and thither we went with the coach, and find it a mighty clean, plain house, and had a dish of very good creame to our liking, and so away presently very merry, and fell to reading of the several Advices to a Painter, which made us good sport, and indeed are very witty, and Creed did also repeat to me some of the substance of letters of old Burleigh in Queen Elizabeth’s time, which he hath of late read in the printed Cabbala, which is a very fine style at this day and fit to be imitated.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Mr Chên proved himself a pleasant boon-companion, and when the wine was nearly finished he went to a box and took from it some wine-cups and a large and beautiful jade tankard; into the latter he poured a single cup of wine, and immediately it was filled to the brim.
— from Myths and Legends of China by E. T. C. (Edward Theodore Chalmers) Werner

"Any freshman math major could poke holes all through this mathematical explanation he offers.
— from The Great Gray Plague by Raymond F. Jones

A bridge was built over the Somme, near Amiens, “and in the middle thereof was a strong trellis of wood such as is made for cages of lions, and the holes between the bars were no larger than a man could put his arm through.”
— from Paris and Its Story by Thomas Okey

He has all that man, as man, could possibly have; and that surely includes the knowledge of the existence of God,—His power eternal, and His Godhead, as Romans i. clearly shows.
— from Old Groans and New Songs Being Meditations on the Book of Ecclesiastes by Frederick Charles Jennings

Like life itself, what had seemed at its base a mighty climb proved here at the top to have been only an insignificant little knoll down in the valley, and only when one had reached the real summit, and could look back upon the region as a whole after all was accomplished, did each little struggle and petty suffering assume its correct proportion.
— from Vagabonding down the Andes Being the Narrative of a Journey, Chiefly Afoot, from Panama to Buenos Aires by Harry Alverson Franck

I think in the early days in Wyoming and Montana they got much quicker results with a horse, as they started working cattle with a young horse as soon as a man could pull him around at all, and there is no doubt
— from Memories of Old Montana by Con Price

And, as to quench all hope, the mountain chain Parts her and you."
— from A Decade of Italian Women, vol. 2 (of 2) by Thomas Adolphus Trollope

"How could you suppose that a mere girl like me could possibly have anything to say—a child that has not even been to her first party?"
— from Cecilia: A Story of Modern Rome by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford

There are all sorts of holes and corners under the cliffs," he added as they went, "where my children play hide-and-seek at picnics.
— from Denis Dent: A Novel by E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung

Mrs. Comerford pushed her away with a force that hurt.
— from Love of Brothers by Katharine Tynan