So I did only give directions concerning a press that I have making there to hold my turning and joyner’s tooles that were lately given me, which will be very handsome, and so away back again, it being now dark, and so home, and there find my wife come home, and hath brought her new girle I have helped her to, of Mr. Falconbridge’s.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

e hath eaten me up;” and we sing in our church that those who mocked Elisha as he went up to the house of God felt the effects of his zeal, which that mocker, that rogue, that scoundrel, will perhaps feel.’ ‘You do this, perhaps, with a good intention,’ said the Cardinal, ‘but, in my opinion, it were wiser in you, and perhaps better for you, not to engage in so ridiculous a contest with a Fool.’ ‘No, my lord,’ answered he, ‘that were not wisely done, for Solomon, the wisest of men, said, “Answer a Fool according to his folly,” which I now do, and show him the ditch into which he will fall, if he is not aware of it; for if the many mockers of Elisha, who was but one bald man, felt the effect of his zeal, what will become of the mocker of so many Friars, among whom there are so many bald men?
— from Utopia by More, Thomas, Saint

Quilp kept the chaise in sight, mingled with the crowd, learnt the single gentleman’s errand, and its failure, and having possessed himself of all that it was material to know, hurried off, reached the inn before him, had the interview just now detailed, and shut himself up in the little room in which he hastily reviewed all these occurrences.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

We swear it by our children dear, We will not dwell as servants here; If Queen Kaikeyí live to reign, We will not in her realm remain.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

He invited me to come next day and see his house and garden.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Yet did he struggle with his numerous disorders, and still had a desire to live, and hoped for recovery, and considered of several methods of cure.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus

Elsie asked for her frock, but Mrs. Ferguson told her it was not dry, and she had better make what shift she could with the old gown she had given her on the previous night.
— from Little Folks (September 1884) A Magazine for the Young by Various

et sapere ipsi Jovi non datur , as Seneca holds, Jupiter himself cannot love and be wise both together; the very best of them, if once they be overtaken with this passion, the most staid, discreet, grave, generous and wise, otherwise able to govern themselves, in this commit many absurdities, many indecorums, unbefitting their gravity and persons.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

That was now done, and she had not the power to attempt self-immolation a second time then.
— from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy

"But it's all right now, dear," and she helped Freddie pull the hay out of his hair.
— from The Bobbsey Twins at Meadow Brook by Laura Lee Hope

In serving, divide through the breast from the neck down, and serve half to each person; or if a smaller portion be desired, divide each half crosswise through the breast, leaving the wing on one part and the leg on the other.
— from Carving and Serving by Mary J. (Mary Johnson) Lincoln

The Rev. Satan Montgomery, otherwise called Robert Montgomery, is not dead, as some have supposed, but is still making sermons and verses—probably sermons and verses of equally bad quality; and we see with some alarm that the Rivingtons advertise, as in preparation, a complete edition of his Poetical Works [we never saw any works by him that were poetical] in one octavo volume, similar in size and appearance to the octavo editions of Southey, Wordsworth, &c., &c., and including the whole of the author's poems— Satan , Woman , Hell , and all the rest,—in a revised form, with some original minor pieces, and a general preface.
— from The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 2, May, 1851 by Various

All might have been well, had it not been for certain other youths of the neighbourhood who did not dance and so had to seek other means of getting rid of their surplus energy.
— from Psmith, Journalist by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse

But he will be able to get away all right—he has not drunk anything since he came."
— from Mark Twain: A Biography. Volume III, Part 2: 1907-1910 by Albert Bigelow Paine

If she be costive, let her use clysters, which may also help to dispel colic, at those times very injurious because attended with useless pains, and because such bear not downward, and so help not to forward the birth.
— from The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher Containing his Complete Masterpiece and Family Physician; his Experienced Midwife, his Book of Problems and his Remarks on Physiognomy by Aristotle

Put his name down, and send him a part-book, if you cannot get a better Alphonse."
— from Margaret Capel: A Novel, vol. 3 of 3 by Ellen Wallace

She was still in her night dress, although she had drawn on something warm about her feet, and, like the good wife she was always to be, she had started the fire—a duty which I admitted properly fell to the man of the house.
— from Neighbours by Robert J. C. Stead