You, who are an officer's wife, and I, who am both an officer's wife and daughter, ought to devise some plan of rescuing this poor, unfortunate lady and her family from her present forlorn situation.”
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

I drove home with the intention of paying that triste visite chez mon oncle (when every trinket I have should be at your disposal though they would not fetch a hundred pounds, for some, you know, are with ce cher oncle already), and found Milor there with the Bulgarian old sheep-faced monster, who had come to compliment me upon last night's performances.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

It is interesting that a similar practice was resorted to in Vienna during the recent war and recommended as a prophylactic for scurvy in children (Tobler).
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess

In the bills of expenses preserved among the national archives, we find that the first president of the Parliament of Paris received a thousand livres parisis annually, representing upwards of one hundred thousand francs at the present rate of money; the three presidents of the chamber five hundred livres, equal to fifty thousand francs; and the other nobles of the said Parliament five sols parisis , or six sols three deniers--about twenty-five francs--per day for the days only on which they sat.
— from Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period by P. L. Jacob

This lecture he enriched with many valuable quotations from the antients, particularly from Seneca; who hath indeed so well handled this passion, that none but a very angry man can read him without great pleasure and profit.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

Subject to the advice of my kind friends, I would make the following contract with Count Seeau:—I would engage to produce every year four German operas, partly buffe and partly serie; from each of these I should claim the profits of one performance, for such is the custom here.
— from The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Volume 01 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

So he said with a bitter laugh:— “My little house is too small; in it there is no worthy place for so magnificent a gift: let the bear rather abide amid these horned trophies until the Judge deign to yield it to me together with the castle.”
— from Pan Tadeusz Or, the Last Foray in Lithuania; a Story of Life Among Polish Gentlefolk in the Years 1811 and 1812 by Adam Mickiewicz

The quantity of scoria left by the primitive founders should alone be sufficient to teach us to how great an extent iron was in use.
— from Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times by John Stewart Milne

I own it looks like one of her ladyship’s obliquities; and they who court her, are interested in finding out her humour as much as I. When these curiosities are seen, quoth I, half addressing myself to my valet de place, who stood behind me——’twill be no hurt if we go to the church of St. Irenæus, and see the pillar to which Christ 34 was tied——and after that, the house where Pontius Pilate lived——’Twas at the next town, said the valet de place —at Vienne; I am glad of it, said I, rising briskly from my chair, and walking across the room with strides twice as long as my usual pace——“ for so much the sooner shall I be at the Tomb of the two lovers. ”
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

To please these, I wish to give a detailed account of all the inhabited region seen and discovered by this expedition, and some of their ceremonies and habits, in accordance with what we came to know about them, and the limits within which each province falls, so that hereafter it maybe possible to understand in what direction Florida lies and in what direction Greater India; and p513 this land of New Spain is part of the mainland with Peru, and with Greater India or China as well, there not being any strait between to separate them.
— from The Coronado Expedition, 1540-1542. Excerpted from the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1892-1893, Part 1. by George Parker Winship

Melmoth was silent from exhaustion, and there was a death-like pause for some time.
— from Melmoth the Wanderer, Vol. 1 (of 4) by Charles Robert Maturin

It refuses coal in North American ports to ships proceeding from South America to neutral countries in Europe, unless the innocence of the cargo can be conclusively proved.
— from South America and the War by F. A. (Frederick Alexander) Kirkpatrick

But if once the truth which I am trying to make clear is understood by the masses, it is easy to see how a union of political forces strong enough to carry it into practice becomes possible.
— from Progress and Poverty, Volumes I and II An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth by Henry George

Licit ergo Paulus , &c. “Albeit, therefore (saith John Bastwick), 826 Paul hath committed to the church the judging both of decency and order, yet hath he not granted any liberty of such mystical ceremonies as by their more inward signification do teach the duty of piety; for since the whole liberty of the church, in the matter of divine worship, is exercised only in order and decency, it followeth that they do impudently scorn both God and the Scriptures, who do extend this liberty to greater things, and such as are placed above us.
— from The Works of Mr. George Gillespie (Vol. 1 of 2) by George Gillespie

At the trifling expense of a plank floor, seats and lamps, a ball-room might be had, if not more splendid, at all events more grand and magnificent than any other on earth.
— from Rambles in the Mammoth Cave, during the Year 1844 By a Visiter by Alexander Clark Bullitt

but their elation was succeeded by dismay when it was seen that the projectiles fell short, many of them bursting in the air and never reaching the bushes that served to mask the enemy's artillery.
— from The Downfall by Émile Zola

Ossington regarded him as a particular friend; and, as particular friends sometimes have a knack of doing, he borrowed no end of money from Ossington, ending by robbing him not only of his money, but of his wife as well.
— from Tom Ossington's Ghost by Richard Marsh

In ordinary circumstances, she would have made haste to tell her mistress all about it, thinking no harm; unfortunately it happened that for some days Miss Starbrow had been in one of her worst moods, and during these sullen irritable periods Fan seldom spoke unless spoken to.
— from Fan : The Story of a Young Girl's Life by W. H. (William Henry) Hudson