We have now and then Rakes in the Habit of Roman Senators, and grave Politicians in the Dress of Rakes.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

Original THOSE who are in the habit of remarking such matters must have noticed the passive quiet of an English landscape on Sunday.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving

Of all incumbents of that high office, Robert Southey had the most notable knack at drugging the Samson of public joy and cutting his hair to the quick; and he had an artistic color-sense which enabled him so to blacken a public grief as to give it the aspect of a national crime.
— from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

On retiring to her own room, she sat in an armchair, her eyes fixed on a miniature portrait of her son on the lid of a snuffbox, while the tears kept coming into her eyes.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

For he never taught in such a way as to maintain the character of a master; but was in the habit of admitting one or two, perhaps at most three or four, disciples in the afternoon; and while he lay at ease and chatted freely on ordinary topics, he occasionally read some book to them, but that did not often happen.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

Among the nettles and burdocks under the hurdle our revelers saw Lizaveta asleep.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

His message is the charioteer That brings the eager envoy near, Urged onward by his bold intent, And by the hest of Ráma sent.”
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

A soldier and a sportsman, Tod learned to understand the romantic, adventurous side of the Rājput character, and he recorded with full appreciation the fine stories of manly valour, of the self-sacrifice of women, the tragedies of the sieges of Chitor, the heroism of Rānas Sanga and Partāb Singh, or of Durgādās.
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 or the Central and Western Rajput States of India by James Tod

The Senate co-operates in the work of legislation, and tries those political offences which the House of Representatives submits to its decision.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville

The members of the House of Representatives, said he, are chosen for two years, the members of the Senate for six.
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 1 (of 16) by United States. Congress

Right Honourable Lord, it hath been signified unto us by divers letters, what hath fallen out concerning a certain ship of ours, called the Jesus, into which, for the help of Richard Skegs, one of our merchants in the same, now deceased, there was admitted a certain Frenchman, called Romaine Sonnings, which for his ill behaviour, according to his deserts, seeking to carry away with him another Frenchman, which was indebted to certain of your people, without paying his creditors, was hanged by sentence of justice, together with Andrew Dier, the master of the said ship, who, simply and without fraud, giving credit to the said Frenchman, without any knowledge of this evil fact, did not return when he was commanded by your honourable lordship.
— from Voyager's Tales by Richard Hakluyt

“The unfortunate cat affected with this malady soon begins to arch her back and rub it against the staves of the chairs or the under part of a low couch or other convenient furniture; then the hairs are observed to be broken, and their condition attributed to this habit of rubbing, so that the real cause is often not suspected till great mischief is done and the parasites thoroughly established, the back becoming sore all the way down, and the animal rapidly losing condition.
— from The Cat: Its Natural History; Domestic Varieties; Management and Treatment by Philip M. Rule

Those who were too old to take any part in our active pleasures, beat time with their hands, or recited stories of former times.
— from Fifty Years in Chains; or, the Life of an American Slave by Charles Ball

The ardent curiosity I had felt to behold the wonderful things which the Brahmin related, and the hope of returning soon to my children and native country, had made me most impatient for the moment of departure; during which time the hazards and difficulties of the voyage were entirely overlooked: but now that the moment of execution had arrived, and I found myself shut up in this small chest, and about to enter on a voyage so new, so strange, and beset with such a variety of dangers, I will not deny that my courage failed me, and I would gladly have compromised to return to Mozaun, and remain there quietly all the rest of my days.
— from A Voyage to the Moon With Some Account of the Manners and Customs, Science and Philosophy, of the People of Morosofia, and Other Lunarians by George Tucker

He was then connected with the house of Russell & Sturgis, our correspondents in Manila, and he joined me for the trip to Macao and Canton.
— from My Life in Many States and in Foreign Lands, Dictated in My Seventy-Fourth Year by George Francis Train

Preacher Dodd, the pet of devout ladies; the unfortunate brothers 105 over whom the charms of Margaret Rudd cast the halo of romance; soldier-parson Hackman, with his love and madness; poisonous Captain Donellan of Lawford Hall—all these magnificent criminals had lately made the march to Tyburn, or elsewhere.
— from Some Distinguished Victims of the Scaffold by Horace Bleackley