“Here,” I said, “I can neither rest nor sleep, and a man needs sleep every night.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Things the sober Soviet citizen of 1946 would regard with veneration were open to ridicule in 1919-1922: patriotism, religion, national sovereignty, international law, treaties with or between capitalist states.
— from Psychological Warfare by Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger

I recollect now,’ said the officer, in a jeering tone; ‘well, what do you want with me?’
— from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

He had even vowed to drive the saul out of the body of that mad rascal: but, perceiving the unexpected turn which things had taken, he wished him joy of his good fortune, observing that it went very near his heart, as he was like to be a great toe out of pocket by the discovery—Mr Dennison now desired to know for what reason my uncle had changed the name by which he knew him at Oxford, and our ‘squire satisfied him, by answering to this effect—‘I took my mother’s name, which was Loyd, as heir to her lands in Glamorganshire; but when I came of age, I sold that property, in order to clear my paternal estate, and resumed my real name; so that I am now Matthew Bramble of Brambleton-hall in Monmouthshire, at your service; and this is my nephew, Jeremy Melford of Belfield, in the county of Glamorgan.’
— from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. (Tobias) Smollett

When the Prior had ceased what he meant as a conciliatory harangue, his companion said briefly and emphatically, “I speak ever French, the language of King Richard and his nobles; but I understand English sufficiently to communicate with the natives of the country.” Cedric darted at the speaker one of those hasty and impatient glances, which comparisons between the two rival nations seldom failed to call forth; but, recollecting the duties of hospitality, he suppressed further show of resentment, and, motioning with his hand, caused his guests to assume two seats a little lower than his own, but placed close beside him, and gave a signal that the evening meal should be placed upon the board.
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott

In this amazement we might remain, nor seek to develop the motive, did not the ample page of history in all [377] nations disclose that in the name of religion more blood has been shed, and more atrocity committed, than by the united action of the whole catalogue of the passions.
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 or the Central and Western Rajput States of India by James Tod

'No information to give, for a reward?' 'No, sir.'
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

Both reach neutrals, sometimes confusingly much.
— from Psychological Warfare by Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger

Where there is not some thing, both lasting and scarce, and so valuable to be hoarded up, there men will not be apt to enlarge their possessions of land, were it never so rich, never so free for them to take: for I ask, what would a man value ten thousand, or an hundred thousand acres of excellent land, ready cultivated, and well stocked too with cattle, in the middle of the inland parts of America, where he had no hopes of commerce with other parts of the world, to draw money to him by the sale of the product?
— from Second Treatise of Government by John Locke

S. Reverend Nathan Strong, Hartford .
— from A Collection of Essays and Fugitiv Writings On Moral, Historical, Political, and Literary Subjects by Noah Webster

So with use and disuse and transmission of acquired characteristics generally—once show that a single structure or instinct is due to habit in preceding generations, and we can impose no limit on the results achievable by accumulation in this respect, nor shall we be wrong in conceiving it as possible that all specialization, whether of structure or instinct, may be due ultimately to habit.
— from The Humour of Homer and Other Essays by Samuel Butler

And then I told him a murder had been committed at the Ansonia in private room Number Seven.
— from Through the Wall by Cleveland Moffett

But to say the truth, madam, let a man love reading never so well, when once he comes to know this town, he finds so many better ways of passing away the four-and-twenty hours that 'twere ten thousand pities he should consume his time in that.
— from History of English Humour, Vol. 1 With an Introduction upon Ancient Humour by A. G. K. (Alfred Guy Kingan) L'Estrange

He was liberal in politics and liberal in his attitude towards life in general; but there was not force enough in him, or, at any rate, not stimulus enough, to lift him to distinction.
— from Hawthorne and His Circle by Julian Hawthorne

On the same street, but on the other side of Fourteenth Street, Colonel and Mrs. Robert N. Scott resided for many years; while just around the corner, on [358] Iowa Circle, in what was then a palatial home, lived Allan McLane and his only child, Anne, who married from this house John Cropper of New York.
— from As I Remember Recollections of American Society during the Nineteenth Century by Marian Gouverneur

The sacerdotal economy, therefore, is so arranged, that whenever the priest dispenses the water at the font, the Holy Spirit follows, as in instantaneous compliance with a suggestion: and whenever he spreads his hands over the elements at the communion, God immediately establishes a preternatural relation, not subsisting the moment before, between the substances on the table and the souls of the faithful communicants: so that every partaker receives, either directly or through supernatural increase of faith, some new share in the merits of the cross.
— from Unitarianism Defended A Series of Lectures by Three Protestant Dissenting Ministers of Liverpool by John Hamilton Thom