At noon home to dinner, only eating a bit, and with much kindness taking leave of Mr. Hill who goes away to-day, and so I by water saving the tide through Bridge and to Sir G. Downing by appointment at Charing Crosse, who did at first mightily please me with informing me thoroughly the virtue and force of this Act, and indeed it is ten times better than ever I thought could have been said of it, but when he come to impose upon me that without more ado I must get by my credit people to serve in goods and lend money upon it and none could do it better than I, and the King should give me thanks particularly in it, and I could not get him to excuse me, but I must come to him though to no purpose on Saturday, and that he is sure I will bring him some bargains or other made upon this Act, it vexed me more than all the pleasure I took before, for I find he will be troublesome to me in it, if I will let him have as much of my time as he would have.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

At the office all the morning, at noon dined at home and Creed with me, and after dinner he and I two or three hours in my chamber discoursing of the fittest way for a man to do that hath money, and find all he offers of turning some into gold and leaving some in a friend’s hand is nothing more than what I thought of myself, but is doubtful, as well as I, what is best to be done of all these or other ways to be thought on.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

And she being importunate, I was forced to go to bed; but with some of my clothes on, as the former night; and she let me hold the two keys; for there are two locks, there being a double door; and so I got a little sleep that night, having had none for two or three nights before.
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

He succeeded in getting a letter to me on my arrival at Vicksburg, and, on my way down to New Orleans, I stopped at Natchez, took him along, and enabled him to effect an exchange through General Banks.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

And they would lose it all; they would be turned out into the streets, and have to hide in some icy garret, and live or die as best they could!
— from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

My dust will show, congealed in death; And, cooing wearily, they’ll say: ‘In grief and loneliness she drew her closing breath.’
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

The scout is given a letter addressed to the "Military Commandant" (usually the lady of the house that he gets to) of any given place a mile or two away.
— from Boy Scouts Handbook The First Edition, 1911 by Boy Scouts of America

She is gaping after love like a carp after water on a kitchen-table.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Why should I go and look for the king, if you love me yourself?”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

I doubted that, and told him so, remembering scenes in Ghent and Lille, and that girl Marthe, and the woman of Venders.
— from Back to Life by Philip Gibbs

So I gave a laugh; but I couldn't help feelin' hurt a little, 'twas so like a son turnin' against his father, as 'twere.
— from The Green Hand: Adventures of a Naval Lieutenant by George Cupples

Old Gregory Giraldi, writing amid the tortures of the gout, which kept him bed–ridden during the last ten years of his life, speaks of her as "a damsel talented beyond the nature of her sex, thoroughly skilled in Greek and Latin literature, and a miracle to all who hear her."
— from A Decade of Italian Women, vol. 2 (of 2) by Thomas Adolphus Trollope

A wild, inspirèd earnestness Her inmost being fills, And eager self-forgetfulness, That speaks not what it wills, But what unto her soul is given, A living oracle from Heaven, Which scarcely in her breast is born
— from Poems of James Russell Lowell With biographical sketch by Nathan Haskell Dole by James Russell Lowell

In this minor nature-worship which spreads its network over all the early world, the character of primitive society is clearly represented; the small communities have their small local worships—each clan, almost each kraal, has its shrine, its god, and limits itself to its own sacred things.
— from History of Religion A Sketch of Primitive Religious Beliefs and Practices, and of the Origin and Character of the Great Systems by Allan Menzies

But soon I got a lesson.
— from The Red Battle Flyer by Richthofen, Manfred, Freiherr von

Thus war, affording field for the display Of virtue, made one chief, whom times of peace, Which have their exigencies too, and call For skill in government, at length made king.
— from The Task, and Other Poems by William Cowper

"Well, if you must have it, after I started to the village I changed my mind about going, and I was anxious to see whether Holbrook was really here; so I got a launch and came over.
— from Rosalind at Red Gate by Meredith Nicholson

The Return from Parnassus , a very curious tripartite play, performed 1597-1601 but retrospective in tone, is devoted to the troubles of poor scholars in getting a livelihood, and incidentally gives much matter on the authors of the time from Shakespere downward, and on the jealousy of professional actors felt by scholars, and vice versâ .
— from A History of Elizabethan Literature by George Saintsbury