But, poor old man, thou prun'st a rotten tree That cannot so much as a blossom yield In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

'Did my lady tell the Signor what Ludovico said, ma'amselle?' asked Annette in a whisper; but Emily quieted her fears on the subject.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.
— from Boy Scouts Handbook The First Edition, 1911 by Boy Scouts of America

I did, however, consent to deliver an address in the American chapel the following Sunday morning, and at this meeting General Harrison, General Porter, and other distinguished Americans were present.
— from Up from Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington

Though the consciences of such men are awakened, yet their minds are not changed; therefore, when the power of guilt weareth away, that which provoked them to be religious ceaseth, wherefore they naturally turn to their own course again, even as we see the dog that is sick of what he has eaten, so long as his sickness prevails he vomits and casts up all; not that he doth this of a free mind (if we may say a dog has a mind), but because it troubleth his stomach; but now, when his sickness is over, and so his stomach eased, his desire being not at all alienate from his vomit, he turns him about and licks up all, and so it is true which is written,
— from The Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that which is to come Delivered under the similitude of a dream, by John Bunyan by John Bunyan

To which Nicolaus made this answer: "I shall principally demonstrate, that either nothing at all, or but a very little, of those imputations are true, of which thou hast been informed; for had they been true, thou mightest justly have been still more angry at Herod."
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

The curious facts of a child coming to them unexpectedly, who called Jude "Father," and Sue "Mother," and a hitch in a marriage ceremony intended for quietness to be performed at a registrar's office, together with rumours of the undefended cases in the law-courts, bore only one translation to plain minds.
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

She had acted in just the same manner as a hypnotized person to whom Bernheim had given the injunction that five minutes after his awakening in the ward he was to open an umbrella, and he had carried out this order on awakening, but could give no motive for his so doing.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud

And with brilliant schemes I stock me; And all this time that horrible lout, The Farmer, makes money, week in, week out, Of chicken and capon, or roasts or boils; Whilst I, who surpass him in wit and sense, Would be glad if I could but carry from hence The toughest old hen, as reward for my toils.
— from The Fables of La Fontaine Translated into English Verse by Walter Thornbury and Illustrated by Gustave Doré by Jean de La Fontaine

The seasons change their manners, as the year Had found some months asleep, and leapt them over.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

The burgomaster's family enjoyed a small prerogative: the salt monopoly, and a little provision store where the tireless industry of the self-sacrificing wife collected a few groschen, "If I don't make something--who will?"
— from On the Cross: A Romance of the Passion Play at Oberammergau by Wilhelmine von Hillern

Some men are as much benefited by their defects as others by their good qualities.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

On being told that possibly a steamer might ascend as far as Sinainanes, he enquired whether a cannon could not blow away the Victoria Falls, so as to enable her to reach Sesheke.
— from Great African Travellers: From Mungo Park to Livingstone and Stanley by William Henry Giles Kingston

During a cruise which I made, as a volunteer, in the ‘Victory,’ with the British fleet, under the command of my late worthy friend Sir Charles Hardy, in the year 1779, I had many opportunities of attending to the firing of heavy cannon; for though we were not fortunate enough to come to a general action with the enemy, as is well known, yet, as the men were frequently exercised at the great guns and in firing at marks, and as some of my friends in the fleet, then captains (since made admirals), as the Honourable Keith Stewart, who commanded the ‘Berwick,’ of 74 guns,—Sir Charles Douglas, who commanded the ‘Duke,’ of 98 guns,—and Admiral Macbride, who was then captain of the ‘Bienfaisant,’ of 64 guns, were kind enough, at my request, to make a number of experiments, and particularly by firing a greater number of bullets at once from their heavy guns than ever had been done before, and observing the distances at which they fell in the sea,—I had opportunities of making several very interesting observations, which gave me much new light relative to the action of fired gunpowder.
— from The Royal Institution: Its Founder and First Professors by Bence Jones

"Suppose I had to meet one of my clients about the gold, I should make an appointment with him at a quarter-past twelve in Islington, or Wapping, or Wandsworth, or Twickenham.
— from Miracle Gold: A Novel (Vol. 3 of 3) by Richard Dowling

We consult your Common Sense Medical Adviser as our family physician.
— from The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English or, Medicine Simplified, 54th ed., One Million, Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand by Ray Vaughn Pierce

The experiment has not struck me as a very happy one.
— from Come Out of the Kitchen! A Romance by Alice Duer Miller

A fire consumed it twenty years ago, leaving only the solid masonry as a memorial of the educational ambition and spiritual consecration of Early Mississippi Methodism.
— from Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, Volume 02 (of 14), 1899 by Mississippi Historical Society