Sin erunt merita, ut non ineunda, sed referenda sit gratia, maior quaedam cura adhibenda est; nullum enim officium referenda gratia magis necessarium est.
— from De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero

Should some ripe scholar, gentle and benign, With candour, care, and judgment thee peruse: Thy faults to kind oblivion he'll consign; Nor to thy merit will his praise refuse.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

He watched Robert Audley's face, fully expecting some reproof, some grave lecture; for he had a vague consciousness that he had done wrong.
— from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

After such a contest as this had fallen out among them, Salome's reputation suffered greatly, since she was supposed to have first raised the calumny; and the king's wives were grieved at her, as knowing she was a very ill-natured woman, and would sometimes be a friend, and sometimes an enemy, at different seasons: so they perpetually said one thing or another against her; a
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

V. The Romans also worship another Laurentia, for this reason: The priest of Hercules, weary with idleness, proposed to the god to cast the dice on the condition that, if he won, he should receive something good from the god, while if he lost, he undertook to provide the god with a bountiful feast and a fair woman to take his pleasure with.
— from Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 (of 4) by Plutarch

she repeated slowly, gazing at her daughter with staring eyes.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

Thus while he roused the fire in every breast, Close and more close the listening cohorts press'd; Ranks wedged in ranks; of arms a steely ring Still grows, and spreads, and thickens round the king.
— from The Iliad by Homer

'Do not close your heart against all my efforts to help you,' said Rose, stepping gently forward.
— from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

"I should as soon marry a daughter of Hobbs," said R. Schmidt, getting up from his chair with restored sprightliness.
— from The Prince of Graustark by George Barr McCutcheon

"Thank you, sir," replied Steve gratefully.
— from Left End Edwards by Ralph Henry Barbour

Now when I said this, for some reason she glanced up at me, sudden and shy, and blushed and slipped from my arms, and fled up the path like a nymph.
— from The Broad Highway by Jeffery Farnol

The only danger seemed to be, as the guide had warned him, in having some apparently secure rock suddenly give way under his weight.
— from The Boy Scouts in the Rockies; Or, The Secret of the Hidden Silver Mine by Carter, Herbert, active 1909-1917

It should seem as if the composer had not dared to avail himself of a quality of voice, in the more dignified characters of tragedy, which had hitherto been entirely appropriated to the buffo parts, such as Don Gruffo, &c. It must, however, be considered as the first triumph of the base voice, which has since run so glorious a career supported by such champions as Pellegrini , Galli , Lablache , and Tamburini .
— from The Harmonicon. Part the First by Various