104 There are, generally speaking, two sorts of jest: the one, coarse, rude, vicious, indecent; the other, refined, polite, clever, witty.
— from De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero

Seeing that this is so,—seeing that the filthy and cruel deeds, the disgraceful and criminal actions of the gods, whether real or feigned, were at their own request published, and were consecrated, and dedicated in their honour as sacred and stated solemnities; seeing they vowed vengeance on those who refused to exhibit them to the eyes of all, that they might be proposed as deeds worthy of imitation, why is it that these same demons, who, by taking pleasure in such obscenities, acknowledge themselves to be unclean spirits, and by delighting in their own villanies and iniquities, real or imaginary, and by requesting from the immodest, and extorting from the modest, the celebration of these licentious acts, proclaim themselves instigators to a criminal and lewd life;—why, I ask, are they represented as giving some good moral precepts to a few of their own elect, initiated in the secrecy of their shrines?
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

"I should think the novelty of the emotion must have given you a thrill of real pleasure, Dorian," interrupted Lord Henry.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

No: the change that came to me was the birth in me of moral passion; and I declare that according to my experience moral passion is the only real passion.
— from Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy by Bernard Shaw

Her eyes were aglow with inspiration, and a slight tremor of rapture passed over her lovely features once or twice.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

but the appointed time and place, are the only restrictions put upon them.
— from Little Folks (September 1884) A Magazine for the Young by Various

Nec praeter rationem mirum videri debet, si quis rem considerare velit, omnes eos vel saltem maximam partem, qui in hoc terrarum orbe res praestantiores aggressi sunt, atque inter caeteros aevi sui heroas excelluerunt, aut obscuro, aut abjecto loco editos, et prognatos fuisse abjectis parentibus.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

You must know, then, that there was once in the city of Pistoia a very fair widow lady, of whom two of our townsmen, called the one Rinuccio Palermini and the other Alessandro Chiarmontesi, there abiding by reason of banishment from Florence, were, without knowing one of other, passionately enamoured, having by chance fallen in love with her and doing privily each his utmost endeavour to win her favour.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

After the chastisement of the guilty, and the restoration of peace, the royal shepherd accepted the reward of his labors; and a solemn comedy represented the triumph of religious prejudice over Barbarian power.
— 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

Upon his solemn oath to observe all the above articles, the said Man-Mountain shall have a daily allowance of meat and drink sufficient for the support of 1,724 of our subjects, with free access to our royal person, and other marks of our favor.
— from The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

'The return of my elder brother from his first campaign in America, was the only real pleasure I had long felt.
— from Emmeline, the Orphan of the Castle by Charlotte Smith

They walked far, to the southwest corner of the great Gardens, where, by the old round pond and the old red palace, when she had put out her hand to him in farewell, declaring that from the gate she must positively take a conveyance, it seemed suddenly to rise between them that this was a real separation.
— from The Spoils of Poynton by Henry James

That night the heavens were overcast with heavy clouds, and torrents of rain poured down upon the face of the earth, and peal after peal of thunder boomed through the heavy heated air.
— from Vera Nevill Or, Poor Wisdom's Chance by Cameron, H. Lovett, Mrs.

If, as you suggest, I am responsible for Miss Chatterton's illness, I must make the only reparation possible.
— from The League of the Leopard by Harold Bindloss

From all this the Hebrew, rough and unkempt, felt himself shut out, perhaps with a touch of regret, perhaps with scorn equal to that on the other side.
— from The Expositor's Bible: Judges and Ruth by Robert A. (Robert Alexander) Watson

Hence it was that it was so difficult to organize relief parties.
— from History of the Donner Party: A Tragedy of the Sierra by C. F. (Charles Fayette) McGlashan

The King wore a short ermine cape over his Field Marshal's uniform, and beneath the cape a sweeping cloak and train of Royal purple.
— from The Life of King Edward VII with a sketch of the career of King George V by J. Castell (John Castell) Hopkins

While such was the case, the fact is equally significant that among the nations contiguous to Israel there is no trace of ritual purification by immersion,—a form of observance which, had it existed in Israel, could not have failed of imitation by her idolatrous neighbors.
— from A Bible History of Baptism by Samuel J. (Samuel John) Baird

Pg 170] disastrously apparent, for though the Anglo-Teutonic Alliance was putting forth every effort, its available ships were only just sufficient to keep the home waters clear and the ocean routes practically open, even for the fastest steamers.
— from The Angel of the Revolution: A Tale of the Coming Terror by George Chetwynd Griffith