Now after a girl has become acquainted with the man as above described, and has manifested her love to him by the various outward signs; and by the motions of her body, the man should make every effort to gain her over.
— from The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana Translated From the Sanscrit in Seven Parts With Preface, Introduction and Concluding Remarks by Vatsyayana

When the cunning monarch became old and infirm, in order to make his enemies believe that he was still young and vigorous, he sent messengers everywhere, even to the most remote countries, to purchase horses, dogs, and falcons, for which, according to Comines, he paid large sums ( Fig. 141 ).
— from Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period by P. L. Jacob

I overcame every obstacle, and reached the goal; but woe to those who stood in my pathway!” “Enough,” said Mercédès; “enough, Edmond!
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

Her diffidence, gratitude, and softness made every expression of indifference seem almost an effort of self-denial; seem, at least, to be giving nearly as much pain to herself as to him.
— from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

But the notices in this book are not more definite 107 than those of the Epistle to the Colossians itself; and we are led to look outside the Canonical writings for some more explicit evidence.
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon A revised text with introductions, notes and dissertations by J. B. (Joseph Barber) Lightfoot

The rough burr-thistle, spreading wide Amang the bearded bear, I turn'd the weeder-clips aside, An' spar'd the symbol dear: No nation, no station, My envy e'er could raise; A Scot still, but blot still, I knew nae higher praise.
— from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns

it may now look like revenge, whereas, I thank Heaven, no such motive ever entered my heart; and if you oblige me to discover it, I must be his petitioner to you for your forgiveness.”
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

Ita nunc apud infimos obtinuit hoc vitium, ut nullius fere pretii sit, et ignavus miles qui non in scortatione maxime excellat, et adulterio.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

" Then said many, "Earl Eirik will not fight and avenge his father; and it is a great shame that it should be told that we lay here with so great a force, and allowed King Olaf to sail out to sea before our eyes.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

Sometimes it would even happen that this precocious hour would sound two strokes more than the last; there must then have been an hour which I had not heard strike; something which had taken place had not taken place for me; the fascination of my book, a magic as potent as the deepest slumber, had stopped my enchanted ears and had obliterated the sound of that golden bell from the azure surface of the enveloping silence.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

It seems high time, after so many years of exorbitant tribute to a ministry of which these people have no approbation, that some more effectual effort should be made than the simple refusal to pay such taxes, which has 256 practically greatly increased their loss, by leaving them utterly at the mercy of the collectors.
— from The Rogerenes: some hitherto unpublished annals belonging to the colonial history of Connecticut by John R. (John Rogers) Bolles

Supremely impertinent to all newly-created nobility, she made every effort to get her parents recognized as equals by the most illustrious families of the Saint-Germain quarter.
— from The Ball at Sceaux by Honoré de Balzac

If in spite of these contradictions we attempt to entertain this solution, our life will become insincere, and will lose all spiritual productivity, and, as a whole, our life will be spent in subjective mood, empty enjoyment, and become feeble.
— from Life's Basis and Life's Ideal: The Fundamentals of a New Philosophy of Life by Rudolf Eucken

Or lived and sung, that Life and Song Might each express the other's all, Careless if life or art were long
— from Evolution of Expression, Volume 2—Revised A Compilation of Selections Illustrating the Four Stages of Development in Art As Applied to Oratory; Twenty-Eighth Edition by Charles Wesley Emerson

Experience has taught me, that those slops are injurious to health : until I left them off (having taken to them at the age of 26), even my habits of sobriety, moderate eating, early rising; even these were not, until I left off the slops, sufficient to give me that complete health which I have since had.
— from Advice to Young Men And (Incidentally) to Young Women in the Middle and Higher Ranks of Life. In a Series of Letters, Addressed to a Youth, a Bachelor, a Lover, a Husband, a Father, a Citizen, or a Subject. by William Cobbett