It is not necessary to be stiff, indolent, or sullenly silent, neither is perfect gravity always required, but if you jest let it be with quiet, gentlemanly wit, never depending upon clownish gestures for the effect of a story.
— from The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness Being a Complete Guide for a Gentleman's Conduct in All His Relations Towards Society by Cecil B. Hartley

In his youth he attended the mission school at Valleytown under Reverend Evan Jones, and just before the adoption of the Cherokee alphabet he finished the translation into phonetic Cherokee spelling of a Sunday school speller noted in Pilling’s Iroquoian Bibliography.
— from Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology by James Mooney

Your excellency is entreated to employ such agent or agents as shall be deemed necessary to effect the restoration and return of said Solomon Northup, in pursuance of an act of the Legislature of the State of New-York, passed May 14th, 1840, entitled "An act more effectually to protect the free citizens of this State from being kidnappd or reduced to slavery."
— from Twelve Years a Slave Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana by Solomon Northup

As she said nothing I proceeded to convince her of my infected state, but she turned away her head, and said,— “‘Have you been waiting for me long? “‘Since eleven, without having had a bite or a sup.’
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

How many things watched by the world agree In this—that far away you see That there is something, yet when sought, And seen still nearer, it proves nought.
— from The Fables of La Fontaine Translated into English Verse by Walter Thornbury and Illustrated by Gustave Doré by Jean de La Fontaine

I did make them all gaze to see themselves served so nobly in plate, and a neat dinner, indeed, though but of seven dishes.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Penny turned very pale, but she said nothing in protest, and Dundee continued to unpack the suitcase.
— from Murder at Bridge by Anne Austin

In no country are the colleges or higher schools so numerous, in proportion to the population, as in the United States.
— from The American Quarterly Review, No. 18, June 1831 (Vol 9) by Various

I only hope we won’t find South Sea niggers in possession before us, for they’re not hospitable, Cuffy, they ain’t hospitable, bein’ given, so I’m told, to prefer human flesh to most other kinds o’ wittles.”
— from Jarwin and Cuffy by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

Whenever, as in the case of small vessels under way during bad weather, the green and red side lights can not be fixed, these lights shall be kept at hand, lighted and ready for use; and shall, on the approach of or to other vessels, be exhibited on their {194} respective sides in sufficient time to prevent collision, in such manner as to make them most visible, and so that the green light shall not be seen on the port side nor the red light on the starboard side, nor, if practicable, more than two points abaft the beam on their respective sides.
— from The Men on Deck: Master, Mates and Crew, Their Duties and Responsibilities by Felix Riesenberg

Sunt autem, quae praeterii, interregnumne esset exspectaturus, an, quo modo dixerit ille quidem ad se deferri consulatum, sed se nolle in proximum annum.
— from Cicero: Letters to Atticus, Vol. 2 of 3 by Marcus Tullius Cicero

They recalled to mind that a search of a somewhat similar nature, in point of manner and time, was undertaken a week before for a stray sheep, and that it had been successful; so they felt relieved, though they remained, of course, dreadfully anxious.
— from Freaks on the Fells: Three Months' Rustication by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne