Every room had its book-cases or book-shelves, and was more or less a library; upon every table was liable to be a litter of new books, fresh periodicals and daily newspapers.
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Charles Dudley Warner

You remind me of Liz a little: she was a first-rate business woman—saved money from the beginning—never let herself look too like what she was—never lost her head or threw away a chance.
— from Mrs. Warren's Profession by Bernard Shaw

Thus, making the most of love, and life did we stay in this lodging in Chelsea about ten days; in which time Charles took care to give his excursions from home a favourable gloss, and to keep his footing with his fond indulgent grand-mother, from whom he drew constant and sufficient supplies for the charge I was to him, and which was very trifling, in comparison with his former less regular course of pleasure.
— from Memoirs of Fanny Hill A New and Genuine Edition from the Original Text (London, 1749) by John Cleland

There are many other peculiarities of climate, habit, custom, and of the manner of living and laboring at the South, but the foregoing, it is supposed, will give the reader an insight and general idea of life on a cotton plantation in Louisiana.
— from Twelve Years a Slave Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana by Solomon Northup

The Inspector of the Medical Department is also a man of leisure, and likely to be at home—if he has not gone out to a card party.
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

in the mean, in part, half, partly, almost Lledach, n. a mean descent Lledadnabod, v. to half-recognise Lledadwy, a. expansible Lledaddaw, v. to half-promise Lledaddef, a. half-ripe, ripe Lledagored, a. half-open Lledallu, v. partly to effect Lledammau, v. partly to suspect Lledan, n. breadth; a flounder Lledaniad, n. an expanding Lledanu, v. to make broad Lledawl, a. relating to breadth Lledben, n. a flat head Lledbrofi, v. partly to taste Lledbwyll, n. a half reason Lledchwelan, n. that is half open, or divided Lledechwyrch, a. half-stupified Lledewig, a. partly oosing Lledewigwst, n. hemorrhoids Lledfan, n. sprawl: a. sprawling Lledfarw, a. partly, or half dead Lledfeddw, a. half-drunk, tipsy Lledfegin, a. half-reared, half-domesticated, or tamed Lledfeginaw, v. to domesticate Lledfegyn, n. domestic animal Lledferwi, v. to parboil Lledfryd, n. listlessness Lledfrydig, a. apt to be listless Lledfrydu, v. to render listless; to be half-minded Lledfyw, a. half-alive; just dead Lledffrom, a. somewhat peevish Lledglaf, a. slightly diseased Lledgloff, a. somewhat lame Lledglywed, v. to hear partly Lledgoel, n. a slight belief Lledgofio, v. partly to remember Lledhynt, n. intent, purpose Llediad, n. a making broad Llediaith, n. corrupt speech Lledled, a. widely spreading Lledlef, n. imperfect utterance Lledlw, n. a vain swearing Llednais, a. elegant, nice, neat Lledneisrwydd, n. elegance Lledoer, a. half cold, lukewarm Lledofni, v. partly to fear Lledol, n. a rearward, a rear Lledorwedd, n. discumbency: v. partly to lie down Lledr, n. leather Lledrad, n. stealth, or theft Lledradol, a. stealing, thieving Lledrata, v. to steal, to thieve Lledred, n. latitude; broadness Lledriad, n. a doing with leather Lledrith, n. illusion, disguise Lledrithiad, n. appearing illusively Lledrithio, v. to appear illusively Lledrithiog, a. being half or partly visible Lledrwr, n. a manufacturer of leather; a leatherseller Lledryw, n. a mongrel kind: a. of degenerate kind Lledrywiad, n. a degenerating Lledrywiaw, v. to degenerate Lledrywiawl, a. degenerating Lledrywiogedd, n. degenerateness Lledrywiogi, v. to degenerate Lledu, v. to widen; to expand Lledw, n. profusion; enjoyment, a. profuse or abundant Lledwad, n. a ladle Lledwedd, n. latitude Lledwenu, v. smiling partly Lledwg, n. a slight frown, a. of a soft quality Lledwigen, n. a creeping thing Lledwigyn, n. a worm Lledwiriondeb, n. half-idiotism Lledwlyb, a. slightly wet Lledwr, n. a spreader Lledwydd, n. imperfect timber, or not good in kind Lledwyllt, a. rather wild Lledd, n. a flat, or a plain Lleddf, a. inclining, oblique Lleddfad, n. a drooping Lleddfod, n. assuagement
— from A Pocket Dictionary: Welsh-English by William Richards

What spectacle can be more painful than that of this feeling turned into a tortured mixture of longing and loathing, the 'golden purity' of passion split by poison into fragments, the animal in man forcing itself into his consciousness in naked grossness, and he writhing before it but powerless to deny it entrance, gasping inarticulate images of pollution, and finding relief only in a bestial thirst for blood?
— from Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth by A. C. (Andrew Cecil) Bradley

The new manner in art, the fresh mode of looking at life, suggested so strangely by the merely visible presence of one who was unconscious of it all; the silent spirit that dwelt in dim woodland, and walked unseen in open field, suddenly showing herself, Dryadlike and not afraid, because in his soul who sought for her there had been wakened that wonderful vision to which alone are wonderful things revealed; the mere shapes and patterns of things becoming, as it were, refined, and gaining a kind of symbolical value, as though they were themselves patterns of some other and more perfect form whose shadow they made real: how strange it all was!
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

It is, moreover, objectively excited by the view of the weakness, the folly, the vices, failings, shortcomings, and imperfections of all kinds, which every one more or less, at least occasionally, affords to others.
— from The Basis of Morality by Arthur Schopenhauer

You may convert some poor wretch whom you have paid to slander his religion; you get some wretched old-clothes-man to speak, and he says what you want; you may triumph over their ignorance and cowardice, while all the time their men of learning are laughing at your stupidity.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Did Mary love the Master more or less, after Lazarus came back?
— from The Gates Ajar by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

"Marster owned lots an' lots of slaves an' de plantation was jes' full o' niggers.
— 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

Alberoni admitted this, but warned him that his stay must only last as long as his illness, and that the attack once over, he must away.
— from Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency — Volume 11 by Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvroy, duc de

The next morning his porter found in his room some thirty sheets of paper, at the top of which stretched in solitary majesty of line— "Ah; love, oh! love, fair prince of youth." That morning, contrary to his habits, Rodolphe had risen very early, and although he had slept very little, he got up at once.
— from Bohemians of the Latin Quarter by Henri Murger

M. Prévost alone, I think, has thrown light by his observations 1 on this puzzle: he finds that the female cuckoo, which, according to most observers, lays at least from four to six eggs, must pair with the male each time after laying only one or two eggs.
— from Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage Round the World of H.M.S. Beagle Under the Command of Captain Fitz Roy, R.N. by Charles Darwin

At the head of the congregation stood a man who was extravagantly praised by his contemporaries, Meshullam ben Jacob (died 1170), a scholar and wealthy man, whose opinion was held to be decisive in all matters of learning and law.
— from History of the Jews, Vol. 3 (of 6) by Heinrich Graetz

You may have a government more of laws and less of men, or vice versa, but you cannot have an auto-administration of the Golden Rule.
— from Courts and Criminals by Arthur Cheney Train

The temptation to use any means to this end is the greater since that men of letters are lenient with bad faith and extend an easy indulgence to treachery.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

My teares do, &c. Thou canst (thou powerfull God of Love) perceive, My ceasselesse sorrow, voide of any comfort, I make my moane to thee, and do not fable, Desiring, that to end my misery, Death may come speedily, and with his Dart With one fierce stroke, quite passing through my hart: To cut off future fell contending strife, An happy end be made of Love and Life.
— from The Decameron (Day 1 to Day 5) Containing an hundred pleasant Novels by Giovanni Boccaccio