Now whether it be thus, or that they are stricter, As better knowing why they should be so, I think you 'll find from many a family picture, That daughters of such mothers as may know The world by experience rather than by lecture, Turn out much better for the Smithfield Show Of vestals brought into the marriage mart, Than those bred up by prudes without a heart.
— from Don Juan by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

His sins trickled from his lips, one by one, trickled in shameful drops from his soul, festering and oozing like a sore, a squalid stream of vice.
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

But it seems he talks English, and he attaches some sort of value to a charm round his neck.
— from Kim by Rudyard Kipling

A boisterous, loud voice, loud laughter, and bold deportment, at a hotel, are sure signs of vulgar breeding.
— from The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness A Complete Hand Book for the Use of the Lady in Polite Society by Florence Hartley

Nullus mihi per otium dies exit, partem noctis studiis dedico, non vero somno, sed oculos vigilia fatigatos cadentesque, in operam detineo.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

The liberal newspapers would sing songs of victory for six months; my mother's name would be dragged through the mire and brought into the prose of Socialistic journals, and my father's name would be smirched.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

Of this there are two kinds which I shall speak of, viz.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

So to see Christ Church with my wife, I seeing several others very fine alone, with W. Hewer, before dinner, and did give the boy that went with me 1s.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

In the use, as well as in the acquisition, of power, the tyrant, George disregarded the laws of religion, of justice, and of humanity; and the same scenes of violence and scandal which had been exhibited in the capital, were repeated in more than ninety episcopal cities of Egypt.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

Moreover our gracious will and pleasure is, and wee doe by theise presents, for us, our heires and successors, declare and sett forthe, that if anie parson or parsons which shalbe of anie of the said Colonies and plantacions or anie other, which shall trafficque to the saide Colonies and plantacions or anie of them, shall at anie time or times hereafter transporte anie wares, marchandize or commodities out of [any] our dominions with a pretence and purpose to lande, sell or otherwise dispose the same within anie the limitts and precincts of anie of the saide Colonies and plantacions, and yet nevertheles being at the sea or after he hath landed the same within anie of the said Colonies and plantacions, shall carrie the same into any other forraine countrie with a purpose there to sell or dispose of the same without the licence of us, our heires or successors in that behalfe first had or obtained, that then all the goods and chattels of the saide parson or parsons soe offending and transporting, together with the said shippe or vessell wherein suche transportacion was made, shall be forfeited to us, our heires and successors.
— from The Three Charters of the Virginia Company of London With Seven Related Documents; 1606-1621 by Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration Corporation

Their principal gambling game is played with thirty small sticks, of various colors, and called by divers names, as the crab, the whale, and the duck.
— from The Native Races [of the Pacific states], Volume 1, Wild Tribes The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume 1 by Hubert Howe Bancroft

The form approached the foot of the bed, the room was preternaturally light, the objects of the chamber were distinctly visible; raising her [229] head and pointing to a dial which stood on the mantel-piece of the chimney, the figure, with a severe solemnity of voice and manner, announced to the appalled and conscience-stricken man that, at that very hour, on the third day after the visitation, his life and his sins would be concluded, and nothing but their punishment remain, if he availed himself not of the warning to repentance which he had received.
— from Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites Including an Account of the Origin and Nature of Belief in the Supernatural by John Netten Radcliffe

"You related to me the sad story of Victoria and Maurice, the young sergeant in the French Guards, killed by his disgraceful punishment.
— from The Sword of Honor; or, The Foundation of the French Republic A Tale of The French Revolution by Eugène Sue

The external form of sponges is very variable, but each species, subspecies, or variety of the Spongillidæ has normally a characteristic appearance.
— from Freshwater Sponges, Hydroids & Polyzoa by Nelson Annandale

The first merely touched upon the south coast at the Recherche's Archipelago, and on the south shores of Van Diemen's Land; and the second only at King George the Third's Sound, near the South-west Cape; but these opportunities were sufficient to celebrate the names of Labillardiere and Menzies as Australian Botanists, notwithstanding they have been since eclipsed by the more extensive discoveries of Mr. Brown, whose collections of Natural History upon the voyage of Captain Flinders, and his pre-eminent qualifications, have justly raised him to the pinnacle of botanical science upon which he is so firmly and deservedly elevated.
— from Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Performed between the years 1818 and 1822 — Volume 2 by Philip Parker King