To the ‘Change and so home to dinner and the office, whither anon comes Sir H. Cholmley to me, and he and I to my house, there to settle his accounts with me, and so with great pleasure we agreed and great friends become, I think, and he presented me upon the foot of our accounts for this year’s service for him L100, whereof Povy must have half.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

No understanding reader could be imposed upon by such obvious rhodomontade to suspect me for an alien, or believe me other than English.—To a second Correspondent, who signs himself 'a Wiltshire man,' and claims me for a countryman upon the strength of an equivocal phrase in my 'Christ's Hospital,' a more mannerly reply is due.
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb

The lines are seldom harmonious, and we must frequently change the accent of common words, or lay stress on unimportant particles, to show the rhythm.
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

And when he was come to the king, and had worshipped him, the king bid him go away to his own house, and have no suspicion of any harm; and desired him to show himself a worthy man, as what would tend to his own advantage.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

He is one of the great Spanish heroes, and was mated to a heroine.
— from The Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole

This was it,” said he, and whistled me the air.
— from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

She came to me, and told me all the above; and I said, I would most willingly wait upon him; for, indeed, I longed to see him, and was much
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

‘What a noble figure she has; and what magnificent black eyes; and what a fine spirit of her own; and what a tongue of her own, too, when she likes to use it.
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

However, after soliciting her amain with messages and it availing him nought, he sent to her threatening her, for that he was a notable man, to dishonour her, an she did not his pleasure; wherefore she, fearful and knowing his character, submitted herself to do his will.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

I was much pleased with his company, and so staid talking with him all alone at my office till 4 in the afternoon, without eating or drinking all day, and then parted, and I home to eat a bit, and so back again to my office; and toward the evening came Mr. Sheply, who is to go out of town to-morrow, and so he and I with much ado settled his accounts with my Lord, which, though they be true and honest, yet so obscure, that it vexes me to see in what manner they are kept.
— from Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete 1662 N.S. by Samuel Pepys

Would he ever see her again with mortal eyes?
— from The Triumph of Death by Gabriele D'Annunzio

When I received them, I had no ghost of an idea that I should ever see H—— again with my bodily eyes, and they gushed tears over the little postcard scenes, so full of sad and sweet reminders of vanished hands and days that were no more.
— from The Retrospect by Ada Cambridge

Our own Free States have abounded with men who are at heart traitors; men who have, by their ignorance of the great principles of national welfare involved in this war, acted as a continual drawback on our progress.
— from Continental Monthly, Vol. III, No IV, April 1863 Devoted to Literature and National Policy by Various

“Here am I, strong, healthy and with more of its goods than I can use, and yet you can’t accept from my surplus enough to tide you over a lean year or two, because Mrs. Grundy forbids.”
— from Ainslee's, Vol. 15, No. 6, July 1905 by Various

He stopped, however, as whistling metal, sheeting in from the north, told him that such action would be decidedly unsafe.
— from Triplanetary by E. E. (Edward Elmer) Smith

"Don't you wish you were a little boy, Seki San?" he asked when most of the lunch had disappeared.
— from Captain June by Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice

Gronski observed that he evinced his rapture too plainly and that in the presence of his mother he should have acted with more circumspection.
— from Whirlpools: A Novel of Modern Poland by Henryk Sienkiewicz