Supper was a most cheerful meal; but very shortly afterwards a terribly sleepy Mole had to be escorted upstairs by his considerate host, to the best bedroom, where he soon laid his head on his pillow in great peace and contentment, knowing that his new-found friend the River was lapping the sill of his window.
— from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Considering therefore the signification of the word Angel in the Old Testament, and the nature of Dreams and Visions that happen to men by the ordinary way of Nature; I was enclined to this opinion, that Angels were nothing but supernaturall apparitions of the Fancy, raised by the speciall and extraordinary operation of God, thereby to make his presence and commandements known to mankind, and chiefly to his own people.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

“If A trade a barrel of onions to B, worth 2 pence the bushel, in exchange for a sheep worth 4 pence and a dog worth a penny, and C kill the dog before delivery, because bitten by the same, who mistook him for D, what sum is still due to A from B, and which party pays for the dog, C or D, and who gets the money?
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

It may be supposed I asked the question; but I have since passed twenty years at Paris, and certainly know that city, yet was the same question repeated at this day, I should be equally embarrassed to answer it, and from this embarrassment it might be concluded I had never been there: thus, even when we meet with truths, we are subject to build our opinions on circumstances, which may easily deceive us.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

On his arrival in the capital, Gregory was entertained in the house of a pious and charitable kinsman; the most spacious room was consecrated to the uses of religious worship; and the name of Anastasia was chosen to express the resurrection of the Nicene faith.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

Supper was a most cheerful meal; but very shortly afterwards a terribly sleepy Mole had to be escorted upstairs by his considerate host, to the best bedroom, where he soon laid his head on his pillow in great peace and contentment, knowing that his new-found friend, the River, was lapping the sill of his window.
— from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

They all plainly and certainly knew that they were criminals who must hide the traces of their guilt as quickly as possible.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Seeing therefore the variety of Motion which we find in the World is always decreasing, there is a necessity of conserving and recruiting it by active Principles, such as are the cause of Gravity, by which Planets and Comets keep their Motions in their Orbs, and Bodies acquire great Motion in falling; and the cause of Fermentation, by which the Heart and Blood of Animals are kept in perpetual Motion and Heat; the inward Parts of the Earth are constantly warm'd, and in some places grow very hot; Bodies burn and shine, Mountains take fire, the Caverns of the Earth are blown up, and the Sun continues violently hot and lucid, and warms all things by his Light.
— from Opticks Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, and Colours of Light by Isaac Newton

Her husband granted her a bright and fresh perfection of form and color, but desiderated any appetizing tang, and lamented, in his phrase, a certain kinship to the impeccable loveliness of some female saint in a jaunty tapestry; bright as ice in sunshine, just so her beauty chilled you, he complained: moreover, this daughter of the Caesars had been fetched into England, chiefly, to breed him children, and this she had never done.
— from Chivalry: Dizain des Reines by James Branch Cabell

MR FLOSKY To say that I do not know, would be to say that I am ignorant of something; and God forbid, that a transcendental metaphysician, who has pure anticipated cognitions of every thing, and carries the whole science of geometry in his head without ever having looked into Euclid, should fall into so empirical an error as to declare himself ignorant of any thing: to say that I do know, would be to pretend to positive and circumstantial knowledge touching present matter of fact, which, when you consider the nature of evidence, and the various lights in which the same thing may be seen— MARIONETTA I see, Mr Flosky, that either you have no information, or are determined not to impart it; and I beg your pardon for having given you this unnecessary trouble.
— from Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock

TO THE LITTLE FLOCK: I dedicate to you the following pages, with my continued prayers to God, through our Great High Priest and coming King, that they may, in connection with God's Holy Word and guidance of the Divine Spirit, enable you more clearly to discover the deceptive arts of the Devil, and the agents he is employing in these last days, to betray and ensnare you in his (almost) innumerable and complicated variety of sins and snares; and see your true position just here under the High Lands of Immortality !
— from A Vindication of the Seventh-Day Sabbath and the Commandments of God With a Further History of God's Peculiar People from 1847-1848 by Joseph Bates

[160] The people of [182] Greece were obliged to learn the idiom of the clergy of Rome in order to make their petitions and complaints known; the ecclesiastics charged by the pope to convert the Greeks could not dispense with the study of the language of Plato and Demosthenes, to teach the disciples of Photius the truths of the Roman Catholic religion.
— from The History of the Crusades (vol. 2 of 3) by J. Fr. (Joseph Fr.) Michaud

June was entertaining Guy in the parlor and Carrie knew that he would say that “three was a crowd,” so she had left them alone, saying significantly that if they did not care she would go to the library.
— from Zula by H. Esselstyn Lindley

His mouth worked peculiarly, and Calhoun knew that it was at the thought of food.
— from Pariah Planet by Murray Leinster

Can we believe that office unimportant and of slender dignity to hold which emperors think themselves honoured, that office by means of which I have caused conquered peoples and captive kings to pass beneath the yoke?
— from Claudian, volume 2 (of 2) With an English translation by Maurice Platnauer by Claudius Claudianus

"If A trade a barrel of onions to B, worth 2 pence the bushel, in exchange for a sheep worth 4 pence and a dog worth a penny, and C kill the dog before delivery, because bitten by the same, who mistook him for D, what sum is still due to A from B, and which party pays for the dog, C or D, and who gets the money?
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Part 5. by Mark Twain

After the councell had demaunded what the citty would doe in their prince and countryes right, the lord maior and aldermen humbly besought their honours to set downe what their wisedomes thought requisite in such a case: the lords demanded five thousand men, and fifteene ships; the city craved two days respite for answere, which was granted, and then entreated their lordships, in signe of their perfect love and loyaltie to their prince and country, kindly to accept tenne thousand men and thirty shippes, amply furnished.
— from Historical Parallels, vol. 2 of 3) by Arthur Thomas Malkin