According to our ugly modern custom, I had been in the habit of making no greeting at all to this old man when I came into the room.
— from The Hungry Stones, and Other Stories by Rabindranath Tagore

Getting into the old uniforms makes you want to talk it all over again?
— from Plays by Susan Glaspell

They each turned themselves round, and asked which arse I wished to operate on, and which prick was to operate upon me.
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous

“O, ma'am,” cries Honour, “your la'ship may trust that to me; we servants very well know how to obtain this favour of our masters and mistresses; though sometimes, indeed, where they owe us more wages than they can readily pay, they will put up with all our affronts, and will hardly take any warning we can give them; but the squire is none of those; and since your la'ship is resolved upon setting out to-night, I warrant I get discharged this afternoon.”
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

-slīcod (ȳ) v. nīg-s. slīdan 1 to ‘ slide ,’ glide, slip, fall, fall down , Guth : fail, err : pass away, be transitory or unstable , MH, Lcd .
— from A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary For the Use of Students by J. R. Clark (John R. Clark) Hall

Hope not that your prayers breathed in tones of unequalled melody, your bright eyes filled with tears, and your hands lifted in supplication, as when seeking in penitence the Virgin's pardon; Hope not that your moving innocence, your beauteous grief, or all your suppliant arts shall ransom you from my embraces.
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis

well and danced and sung and made music, all things apt to incite weak minds to things less seemly, I have noted no act, no word, in fine nothing blameworthy, either on your part or on that of us men; nay, meseemeth I have seen and felt here a continual decency, an unbroken concord and a constant fraternal familiarity; the which, at once for your honour and service and for mine own, is, certes, most pleasing to me.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

ENDNOTES: (1) Thing-men were hired men-at-arms; called Thing-men probably from being men above the class of thralls or unfree men, and entitled to appear at Things, as being udal-born to land at home.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

“Th’ thought of un makes me feel almost—sick,” said Andy.
— from Grit A-Plenty: A Tale of the Labrador Wild by Dillon Wallace

It was entirely an inland emirate, and had little chance of resisting the Osmanlis under Murad.
— from The Foundation of the Ottoman Empire; a history of the Osmanlis up to the death of Bayezid I (1300-1403) by Herbert Adams Gibbons

She trembled for little Mary, who had disappeared from the neighboring garden, till she heard that the child had fled to escape the cloister; each day she learnt that Heliodora, who had moved to the gardener's house with her invalid, had as yet escaped the pestilence; while in the prayers, which even now she never failed to offer up mornin
— from The Bride of the Nile — Volume 12 by Georg Ebers

Perhaps he had been seized with a dislike for complete silence, such as comes upon men in recurring hours of depression, when the mind is submerged by a thin tide of unreasoning melancholy, and sound of one kind or another is as ardently sought as at other times it is avoided.
— from Flames by Robert Hichens

But I take the obligation upon me.
— from William Wycherley [Four Plays] by William Wycherley

Don't you see, old chap, that [Pg 103] two of us might make a reasonable show if violence is attempted?
— from The Albert Gate Mystery Being Further Adventures of Reginald Brett, Barrister Detective by Louis Tracy

What we really miss according to our usual mode of life is the absence of the "sweet" course at luncheon or dinner.
— from Letters of Lt.-Col. George Brenton Laurie (commanding 1st Battn. Royal Irish Rifles) Dated November 4th, 1914-March 11th, 1915 by G. B. (George Brenton) Laurie