Votum faciebat tunc temporis sancto Nicolao; quo facto, sinum dextrum inserens, e quâ negligenter pependit acinaces, lento gradu processit per plateam
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

She contented herself by leaning back in her chair, merely playing with the food on her plate, and looking grave and absent; while all around her were enjoying the mots of Mr. Grey, the gentleman who always took the bottom of the table at Mrs. Shaw's dinner parties, and asked Edith to give them some music in the drawing-room.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

The Praetorians, at length, gave way, oppressed with numbers; and the tide of popular fury returned with redoubled violence against the gates of the palace, where Commodus lay, dissolved in luxury, and alone unconscious of the civil war.
— 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

In addition to these larches he planted a little grove of beech, pine, and mountain-ash.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

But I heard, afterwards, that he was seen to play a lively game at skittles, before noon.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

In this distress two true friends, whose kindness I have never forgotten, nor ever shall forget while I can remember any thing, came to me separately, unknown to each other, and, without any application from me, offering each of them to advance me all the money that should be necessary to enable me to take the whole business upon myself, if that should be practicable; but they did not like my continuing the partnership with Meredith, who, as they said, was often seen drunk in the streets, and playing at low games in alehouses, much to our discredit.
— from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

A single word is often a concentrated poem, a little grain of pure gold, capable of being beaten out into a broad extent of gold-leaf.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

As we were passing a large globe a short time after she had written the questions, she stopped before it and asked, "Who made the REAL world?"
— from The Story of My Life With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy by Helen Keller

" Dorian heaved a sigh, and Lord Henry strolled across the room and began to stroke the head of a curious Java parrot, a large, grey-plumaged bird with pink crest and tail, that was balancing itself upon a bamboo perch.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The thing for us to do is to claim God's promise and let God take care of the mode of manifestation.
— from The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit by R. A. (Reuben Archer) Torrey

On the first Sunday after Carlyle joined the party at Leyden, Gregory took him out for a walk along the Cingle, and introduced him to the English colony.
— from The Academic Gregories by Agnes Grainger Stewart

Jihocesky, Jihomoravsky, Praha, Severocesky, Severomoravsky, Stredocesky, Vychodocesky, Zapadocesky Independence: 1 January 1993 (from Czechoslovakia) National holiday: National Liberation Day, 8 May; Founding of the Republic, 28 October Constitution: ratified 16 December 1992; effective 1 January 1993 Legal system: civil law system based on Austro-Hungarian codes; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction; legal code modified to bring it in line with Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) obligations and to expunge Marxist-Leninist legal theory Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal Executive branch: chief of state: President Vaclav HAVEL (since 26 January 1993) head of government : Prime Minister Vaclav KLAUS (since NA June 1992); Deputy Prime Ministers Ivan KOCARNIK (since NA June 1992), Josef LUX (since NA June 1992), Josef ZIELENIEC (since NA June 1992) cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on the recommendation of the prime minister elections : president elected by Parliament for a five-year term; election last held 26 January 1993 (next to be held NA January 1998); prime minister appointed by the president election results: Vaclav HAVEL elected president; percent of parliamentary vote - NA Legislative branch: bicameral Parliament or Parlament consists of the Senate (81 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve staggered two-, four-, and six-year terms) and the Chamber of Deputies or Snemovna Poslancu (200 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms) elections : Senate - last held 15-16 and 22-23 November 1996 (next to be held NA November 1998 - to replace/re-elect 20 senators serving two-year terms); Chamber of Deputies - last held 31 May-1 June 1996 (next to be held NA May 2000) election results : Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - governing coalition (ODS 32, KDU-CSL 13, ODA 7), opposition (CSSD 25, KCSM 2, DEU 1, independent 1); Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - governing coalition (ODS 68, KDU-CSL 18, ODA 13), opposition (CSSD 61, KCSM 22, SPR-RSC 18) Judicial branch: Supreme Court, chairman and deputy chairmen are appointed by the president; Constitutional Court, chairman and deputy chairmen are appointed by the president Political parties and leaders: governing coalition : Civic Democratic Party or ODS [Vaclav KLAUS, chairman]; Civic Democratic Alliance or ODA [Michael ZANTOVSKY, chairman]; Christian Democratic Union-Czech People's Party or KDU-CSL [Josef LUX, chairman] opposition: Czech Social Democrats or CSSD - left opposition
— from The 1997 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency

You doubtless know that the polar regions even in the original attitude of the earth, owing to their receiving the rays of the sun obliquely, must have possessed a less genial climate than the parts of the orb that lie between the arctic and the antarctic circles.
— from The Monikins by James Fenimore Cooper

There was first of all the Greek affair, and then the case of the Ceylon witnesses—matters affecting Lord Palmerston and Lord Grey.
— from The Greville Memoirs, Part 2 (of 3), Volume 3 (of 3) A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852 by Charles Greville

Finally, the Imperial Parliament passed a law granting Home Rule to Ireland.
— from England, Canada and the Great War by L. G. (Louis Georges) Desjardins

The farmer had now, without success, pursued this course for six weeks, at the end of which time his prisoner at last gave up.
— from The Fairy Mythology Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries by Thomas Keightley

We have now to consider the fortunes of Montreal under the reign of Frontenac, as governor general, and M. Perrot, as local governor.
— from Montreal, 1535-1914. Vol. 1. Under the French Régime, 1535-1760 by William H. (William Henry) Atherton