They were perfectly magnificent, especially a certain ruby necklace with old Venetian setting, which was really a superb specimen of sixteenth-century work, and their value was so great that Mr. Otis felt considerable scruples about allowing his daughter to accept them.
— from The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde

The title suggests all kinds of mysteries; a glance at the chapter-headings quickly confirms the suspicions already aroused, and the sub-title: “A Book for All and None”, generally succeeds in dissipating the last doubts the prospective purchaser may entertain concerning his fitness for the book or its fitness for him.
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Whilst persons more equal to this business may be engaged in affairs of greater moment, I hope I shall be excused, if, in a few hours of a time not very important, and from such materials as I have by me (more than enough however for this purpose), I undertake to set the facts and arguments of this wonderful performance in a proper light.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

The medicine heats the spleen gently, purges melancholy, eases pains in the stomach and spleen, and strengthens digestion.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

I must perform my engagement and let the monster depart with his mate before I allowed myself to enjoy the delight of a union from which I expected peace.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Do they take care for any more than this; the one, that their shipmaster may bring them safe to land, and the other, that their physician may effect their recovery? H2 anchor LI.
— from Meditations by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius

Had it been less balanced than it was, he would have gone with Mr. Garrison, Mr. Wendell Phillips, Mr. Edmund Quincy, and Theodore Parker, into secession.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

E quando la fortuna volse in basso l'altezza de' Troian che tutto ardiva, si` che 'nsieme col regno il re fu casso, Ecuba trista, misera e cattiva, poscia che vide Polissena morta, e del suo Polidoro in su la riva del mar si fu la dolorosa accorta, forsennata latro` si` come cane; tanto il dolor le fe' la mente torta.
— from Divina Commedia di Dante: Inferno by Dante Alighieri

There is no other cure but time to wear it out, Injuriarum remedium est oblivio , as if they had drunk a draught of Lethe in Trophonius' den: to conclude, age will bereave her of it, dies dolorem minuit , time and patience must end it.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

One of his sons, Philibert, married Elizabeth, daughter of George, Earl of Hamilton.
— from A Book of the Pyrenees by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould

“Pardon me; ever since I left college.”
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

In the year 1666, the whole profit arising from acting plays, masques, etc., at the King's theatre, was divided into twelve shares and three quarters, of which Mr. Killegrew, the manager, had two shares and three quarters, each share computed to produce about £250, net, per annum.
— from An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, Volume 1 (of 2) Written by Himself. A New Edition with Notes and Supplement by Colley Cibber

The practical moral ends, such as the reformation of prisons, the improvement of the dwellings of the poor, are yet higher ends.
— from The Essentials of Spirituality by Felix Adler

‘Perhaps, Mr. Ewart,’ said Fairford, ‘you live chiefly with men too deeply interested for their own immediate safety, to think much upon the distress of others?’
— from Redgauntlet: A Tale Of The Eighteenth Century by Walter Scott

Now I believe you must have had enough of this subject for the present, more especially as you have not yet begun to feel the extraordinary difficulty of making up your mind as to what is and what is not fit for the carver's uses among the boundless examples of beauty spread out for our choice by Dame Nature.
— from Wood-Carving: Design and Workmanship by George Jack

I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it; And if it stand, as you yourself still do, Within the eye of honour, be assured, My purse, my person, my extremest means, Lie all unlock’d to your occasions.
— from The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 2 of 9] by William Shakespeare

Some people might even go so far as to say that she should have been ashamed of herself; others, that Mr. Longfellow, in giving her away, was guilty of an indelicacy, to say the least of it.
— from A Plea for Old Cap Collier by Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb