“A well-bred person always receives visitors at whatever time they may call, or whoever they may be; but if you are occupied and cannot afford to be interrupted by a mere ceremony, you should instruct the servant beforehand to say that you are ‘not at home.’
— from The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness Being a Complete Guide for a Gentleman's Conduct in All His Relations Towards Society by Cecil B. Hartley

Presently Fanny produced Hare's Walks in Rome , a sort of mitigated guide-book very popular among Roman visitors; and the father of the two daughters began to examine his books of tickets minutely, apparently in a search after English words.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

He had a slight and elegant figure, moved gracefully, danced and waltzed beautifully, spoke the best of Castilian, with a pleasant and refined voice and accent, and had, throughout, the bearing of a man of high birth and figure.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

These elusive particles are rendered visible and tangible by the process of nutrition , which combines them.”
— from Galen: On the Natural Faculties by Galen

Moored in the rifted rock, Proof to the tempest's shock, Firmer he roots him the ruder it blow; Menteith and Breadalbane, then, Echo his praise again, 'Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, ho!
— from The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott

‘After all,’ said Mr. Pickwick, as he drained the last drop, ‘his pranks are really very amusing; very entertaining indeed.’
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

And the consciousness that the insult was not yet avenged, that his rancor was still unspent, weighed on his heart and poisoned the artificial tranquillity which he managed to obtain in Turkey by means of restless, plodding, and rather vainglorious and ambitious activity.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

So well do we like his society, that we are only sorry we cannot at present accompany him further on his rambles, or return with him to Mazatlan, where he arrived at a flying gallop, after a ride of 2500 miles on horseback—the last 112 leagues in fifty-three hours, (said to be the quickest trip on record,) to be received by a host of friends, and by a Yankee band playing, "Hail, Columbia!" and sail with him to Polynesia, and revisit Valparaiso and Lima, and many other places, in all of which he manages heartily to amuse both himself and his reader, till he finally drops anchor in the waters of the Chesapeake, arriving, with equal satisfaction to both parties, at the end of 450 pages, and 55,000 miles.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 67, No. 411, January 1850 by Various

A friend (Mr. Prescott Hall), making a timely journey through Spain, bought for him [42] many valuable pictures, among them a Snyders, a Nicolas Poussin, a reputed Velasquez and Rembrandt.
— from Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910 by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards

From the first, they organize street riots and jacqueries in the rural districts, they let loose on society prostitutes and ruffians, vile and savage beasts.
— from The French Revolution - Volume 2 by Hippolyte Taine

The good, that is to say, the prudent and affectionate father, the pious priest, and the righteous king, are each and all, though in different ways and degrees, and with different powers and rights, visible and acting vicegerents on earth of the invisible God.
— from The philosophy of life, and philosophy of language, in a course of lectures by Friedrich von Schlegel

Oliver catechised him now and then as to his progress, and received vague answers in reply, and Loman never remembered a fag that pestered him less with lessons.
— from The Fifth Form at Saint Dominic's: A School Story by Talbot Baines Reed

When a man is entangled and suffocated in business, all relating to that which shrinks up to a point—and observe, I do not mean that being conceived as a tent above his head it contracts, but that, viewed as a body at a distance, it shrinks up to a point, and really vanishes as a real thing—when this happens, having no subjective existence at all, but purely and intensely objective, he misconceives it just in the same way as a poor ignorant man misconceives learning or knowledge; fancying, e.g. , like Heylius senior, that he ought to know the road out of the wood in which they were then entangled.
— from The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 by Thomas De Quincey

But the tenant now paid a rent varying according to the prices of the day—namely, the money rent plus the cash value of the wheat and malt according to the best prices of these commodities in Cambridge on the market-day preceding quarter-day.
— from St. John's College, Cambridge by Robert Forsyth Scott

I remained in Portsmouth three days, and as its situation and relations were already known to me, I spent the time in reading, writing, paying and receiving visits, and in strolling about in interesting society.
— from Travels Through North America, During the Years 1825 and 1826. v. 1-2 by Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Bernhard