It comes now into my mind to observe that I am sensible that I have been a little too free to make mirth with the minister of our ship, he being a very sober and an upright man.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

By some means or other she had acquired, and now held in possession, a wardrobe of rather suspicious splendour—gowns of stiff and costly silk, fitting her indifferently, and apparently made for other proportions than those they now adorned; caps with real lace borders, and—the chief item in the inventory, the spell by which she struck a certain awe through the household, quelling the otherwise scornfully disposed teachers and servants, and, so long as her broad shoulders wore the folds of that majestic drapery, even influencing Madame herself— a real Indian shawl —"un véritable cachemire," as Madame Beck said, with unmixed reverence and amaze.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

The last moment of our sufferings has at length come; for to sufferings too there is happily an end.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

As he wouldn't go away, and shocked the company very much, our overseer sent him out a pound of potatoes and half a pint of oatmeal.
— from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

They have boats called canoes made of one single huge tree, 62 hollowed out by the use of stone hatchets.
— from The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 33, 1519-1522 Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century by Antonio Pigafetta

Then people begin to talk of him; he disputes with ministers of other sects; he and his followers give themselves a name, and the thing is done.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

That is why we say to them in all frankness: The misuse of our Order, the misunderstanding of our secret, has produced all the political and moral troubles with which the world is filled to-day.
— from Secret Societies And Subversive Movements by Nesta Helen Webster

Tail length was measured only on snakes having complete tails, and body length (snout-vent) was considered as total length minus tail length.
— from Morphological Variation in a Population of the Snake, Tantilla gracilis Baird and Girard by Laurence M. Hardy

The lonely mother of one son had been through much anxiety and perplexity before the plans for this change in their life were fully formed.
— from Ruth Erskine's Son by Pansy

But Mrs. Oldham only shook her head.
— from The Silver Butterfly by Woodrow, Wilson, Mrs.

Why, my last clerk was a capital salesman—knew how to please customers and influence trade—but contrived to swindle me out of several hundred dollars in three months.”
— from Tom Temple's Career by Alger, Horatio, Jr.

"And there was a great big giant of a man on the other side of the road, washing a carriage, with a bucket of water and I don't know what, and as I moves on one side he catches sight of Willyum, and anything like the way in which he started swearing you never heard.
— from Amusement Only by Richard Marsh

[Pg 283] Leaving the White House under a still and brilliant sky, the retiring and incoming rulers had such a popular and military attendance as without much order or splendor has usually gone up Capitol Hill with our presidents.
— from Martin Van Buren by Edward Morse Shepard

Then he clucked after the manner of one starting his horse.
— from Silas Strong, Emperor of the Woods by Irving Bacheller

I didn't know that you had this altercation with him, but I want to say this: That so far as the jurisdiction of this Commission is concerned and its procedures, no member of our staff has a right to tell any witness that he is lying or that he is testifying falsely.
— from Warren Commission (05 of 26): Hearings Vol. V (of 15) by United States. Warren Commission

Sir Hugh Burnell, a descendant of Robert Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells, and Lord Chancellor in the reign of Edward I., entered into articles of agreement with Sir Walter Hungerford (through the King's mediation by letters) for the marriage of Margery, one of Sir Hugh's grandchildren, to Edmund Hungerford, son of Sir Walter.
— from Notes and Queries, Vol. V, Number 130, April 24, 1852 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by Various