After talking so much of diversions, I fear you will attribute to them the fondness I own I contract for Florence; but it has so many other charms, that I shall not want excuses for my taste.
— from Letters of Horace Walpole — Volume I by Horace Walpole

If the years had been counted from the beginning of this great year, there could have been no doubt when it came to an end, as from the want of a leap year the new year’s day must have been always moving one day in four years; but no satisfactory reckoning of the years had been kept, and, as the end of the period was only known by observation, there was some little doubt about the exact year.
— from History of Egypt From 330 B.C. To the Present Time, Volume 11 (of 12) by A. S. (Angelo Solomon) Rappoport

My reason for writing you is that a good many years ago you did something very nice and kind for me one day, in fact you helped me twice, although I don’t suppose you knew it.
— from The Search by Grace Livingston Hill

"My own darling, I forgive you a thousand times—would that I could suffer instead of you."
— from Mabel: A Novel. Vol. 1 (of 3) by Newby, C. J., Mrs.

I am a plain and blunt old man, Alfred, but you know that my only desire is for your good; so bear with my remarks if they be unpalatable.
— from Words of Cheer for the Tempted, the Toiling, and the Sorrowing by T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur