There was such a thing as momentary insanity, in which the person, otherwise rational to all appearances, was for the time actually bereft of reason, and not responsible for his acts.
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Charles Dudley Warner

Those who provided the death gifts on the day of the death must on this day bring with them a bag of rice, and about four rupees in money.
— from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7 by Edgar Thurston

When it was dead Françoise mopped up its streaming blood, in which, however, she did not let her rancour drown, for she gave vent to another burst of rage, and, gazing down at the carcass of her enemy, uttered a final "Filthy creature!
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

It happened that the Boat one Day came aboard just before Dinner was ready, and Low desired that they might stay and Dine; but the Captain, being in a Hurry for his Lading, ordered them a Bottle of Rum, and to take t’other Trip, because no Time should be lost: This provoked the Boat’s Crew, but particularly Low , who takes up a loaded Musquet and fires at the Captain, but missing him, shot another poor Fellow thro’ the Head, then put off the Boat, and with his twelve Companions goes to Sea: The next Day they took a small Vessel, and go in her, make a black Flag, and declare War against all the World.
— from A General History of the Pyrates: from their first rise and settlement in the island of Providence, to the present time by Daniel Defoe

He lives,—or rather, he no longer lives,—ah well, I don’t know.” As he spoke, he had bent over to train a branch of rhododendron, and he continued:— “Hold, I know now.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

What good it would do me to be copied, or what good it would do that mind to copy me, if farther consequences are expressly and in principle ruled out as motives for the claim (as they are by our rationalist authorities)
— from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James

“Ay, ay, now there is reason in your words, for they are bottomed on religion and honesty.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper

The fact that the crime was committed at two in the morning, and yet Peter Carey was fully dressed, suggested that he had an appointment with the murderer, which is borne out by the fact that a bottle of rum and two dirty glasses stood upon the table.”
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

In the evening my Lord Bruncker hearing that Mr. Ackeworth’s clerke, the Dutchman who writes and draws so well, was transcribing a book of Rates and our ships for Captain Millet a gallant of his mistress’s, we sent for him for it.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

There was no confusion: the hackney coaches and the chairs were directed by Madame's servants, who stood outside, to arrive by one road and to depart by another.
— from The Orange Girl by Walter Besant

Now of all pleasures, those are the cheapest which are bought of nature—such as air and exercise, and manly sports; and though we allow that the poor, in order to relish them, must be free from the melancholier states of poverty, it is desirable meanwhile that the dispensers of knowledge should assist in hastening more cheerful times by preparing for them, and that all classes should be told how much the cultivation of their bodily health increases the ability, both of rich and poor, to get out of their troubles.
— from The Town: Its Memorable Characters and Events by Leigh Hunt

Between two fools one comes to the ground--sometimes--but Luigi intended to come to a bed of roses, and to have a cash-box beneath it.
— from The Wages of Virtue by Percival Christopher Wren

"Then, sir, we differ," Harry replied, "for that would not I. There are your friends," he said to Herbert, pointing to a body of Roundheads at a short distance, "Give me your word, however, that you will not draw sword again to-day."
— from Friends, though divided: A Tale of the Civil War by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

Then we all got hold of some kind of weapon with which to help our friends, the gallant Popsipetels: I borrowed a bow and a quiver full of arrows; Jip was content to rely upon his old, but still strong teeth; Chee-Chee took a bag of rocks and climbed a palm where he could throw them down upon the enemies’ heads; and Bumpo marched after the Doctor to the fence armed with a young tree in one hand and a door-post in the other.
— from The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

But though such overgrown hierarchies may long support themselves by these violent expedients, the time comes when severities tend only to enrage the new sectaries, and make them break through all bounds of reason and moderation.
— from The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part D. From Elizabeth to James I. by David Hume