Have you no wit, manners, nor honesty, but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night?
— from Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will by William Shakespeare

The chimneys of the houses, the battlements of the walls, the faceted gables of the roofs, the spire of the Augustines, the tower of Nesle, all these projections which broke the profile of the colossal obelisk added to the illusion by displaying in eccentric fashion to the eye the indentations of a luxuriant and fantastic sculpture.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

The manners of the ill-mannered are never so odious, unbearable, exasperating, as they are to their own nearest kindred.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

“What are you doing there at this time of night?”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

But inasmuch it seemed to most people either invidious or difficult to give the aid that this office needed, it was resolved that a man should be chosen by lot.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

If this change is the result of a general decline of physical and intellectual powers—I am ill, you know, and every day I am losing weight—my position is pitiable; it means that my new ideas are morbid and abnormal; I ought to be ashamed of them and think them of no consequence....” “Illness has nothing to do with it,” Katya interrupts me; “it’s simply that your eyes are opened, that’s all.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

If thou be so brave and long-suffering in hope that when inward comfort is taken from thee, thou even prepare thy heart for the more endurance, and justify not thyself, as though thou oughtest not to suffer these heavy things, but dost justify Me in all things that I appoint, and dost bless My Holy Name, then dost thou walk in the true and right way of peace, and shalt have a sure hope that thou shalt again behold My face with joy.
— from The Imitation of Christ by à Kempis Thomas

Now the use of the Auxiliaries is, at once to set the soul a-going by herself upon the materials as they are brought her; and by the versability of this great engine, round which they are twisted, to open new tracts of enquiry, and make every idea engender millions.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

" Thereon the son of Peleus, when he had listened to all the thanks of Nestor, went about among the concourse of the Achaeans, and presently offered prizes for skill in the painful art of boxing.
— from The Iliad by Homer

Where's the gal going to at this time of night?' 'Not far.' 'What answer's that?' retorted Sikes.
— from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Pliny had never been wholly forgotten, even in the most anti-pagan times, and the treatises on natural science which had appeared among the schoolmen, all stimulated curiosity to learn what had been written before the days of Constantine.
— from Palæography Notes upon the History of Writing and the Medieval Art of Illumination by Bernard Quaritch

The voyage of the China terminated at the town of Nan-zing, situated almost in the centre of the silk district; and here she remained while the Chinese supercargo went into the country with many thousands of dollars to purchase silk; the regions under Ti-ping rule being so safe to travel, that all the vast amount of specie (from 8 to 10 millions sterling per annum) used during each season was carried about the country simply under the protection of the Chinese shroff , employed by the firm to whom the money belonged.
— from Ti-Ping Tien-Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution (Volume II) by Augustus F. Lindley

Heedless of Mrs. Harris’ further remarks and so absorbed in an effort to solve the puzzle that Virginia thought: “What business had he out there at that time of night?
— from An Oregon Girl: A Tale of American Life in the New West by Alfred Ernest Rice

It is highly significant that all these tribes of New Guinea apply the same word to the bull-roarer and to the monster, who is supposed to swallow the novices at circumcision, and whose fearful roar is represented by the hum of the harmless wooden instruments.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 11 of 12) by James George Frazer

And again those who serve many gods are divided into three races, Chaldeans, Greeks and Egyptians, for these are to the other nations the leaders and teachers of the service and worship of the gods whose name is legion.
— from Barlaam and Ioasaph by Saint John of Damascus

He wished the advance thereof to operate no longer than until the present existing circumstances were removed; he should move, therefore, to have the duration of this regulation for one year, instead of two, as it was possible in the mean time the price of living might be so reduced as to make the additional allowance no longer necessary.
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 2 (of 16) by United States. Congress

"Well, I reckon I've talked, about as long as I ought to, at this time of night; but I've never come this way since then, without thinkin' thet perhaps I might see him again.
— from The Young Trail Hunters Or, the Wild Riders of the Plains. The Veritable Adventures of Hal Hyde and Ned Brown, on Their Journey Across the Great Plains of the South-West by Samuel Woodworth Cozzens

Seeing which, Billy thought a turkey tail of no account and flung that one high above him shouting in wild childish laughter, when the feathers scattered and fell.
— from A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter

Ye see it's all so fresh an' new to her, an' she keeps thinkin' all the time of new things she can't do—NOW.
— from Pollyanna by Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter

The assertion has been made by many writers, and is currently repeated by Indian traders and some Army officers, that all the tribes of North America have long had and still use a common and identical sign language, in which they can communicate freely without oral assistance.
— from Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared With That Among Other Peoples And Deaf-Mutes First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-1880, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 263-552 by Garrick Mallery