It is Chaucer who tells us, in the 'Wife of Bath's' tale, that he who ever intendeth to perform all kinds of gentle deeds is the greatest gentleman, and that he who will perform none of them— "He is not gentle, be he duke or earl;"
— from Cabinet Portrait Gallery of British Worthies. Volume I by Anonymous

Probably this was the same sign as that represented on the trades token of Samuel Bovery in George Lane, a naked figure picking one of its feet; but the name of the house is not given on the token.
— from The History of Signboards, from the Earliest times to the Present Day by John Camden Hotten

There is hardly any nation which does not boast of having produced such heroines; the number of these, however, is not great; nature seems to have designed women for other purposes.
— from A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 01 by Voltaire