A man in good health, if he cannot have a woman, must necessarily have recourse to onanism, whenever imperious nature demands it, and the man who, from fear of polluting his soul, would abstain from it, would only draw upon himself a mortal disease.”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

And the only window is nailed down, you see.
— from The Senator's Favorite by Miller, Alex. McVeigh, Mrs.

No man ought severely to ape either the ancients or the moderns; but, if it was necessary, to run into an extreme of one side or the other, which is never done by a judicious and well-directed mind, it would be better for a wit, as for a painter, to enrich himself by what he can take from the ancients, than to grow poor by taking all from his own stock; or openly to affect an imitation of those moderns, whose more fertile genius has produced beauties, peculiar to themselves, and which themselves only can display with grace: beauties of that peculiar kind, that they are not fit to be imitated by others; though, in those who first invented them, they may be justly esteemed, and in them only[5].
— from The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes, Volume 05 Miscellaneous Pieces by Samuel Johnson

The oil which is not dissolved, can be acted upon again by alcohol; by this second operation, it yields some parts to the alcohol, and the remainder loses all its specific qualities.
— from New York Journal of Pharmacy, Volume 1 (of 3), 1852 Published by Authority of the College of Pharmacy of the City of New York. by College of Pharmacy of the City of New York

The strangenesse then of this opinion which I now deliver will be a great hinderance to its beliefe, but this is not to be respected 22 by reason it cannot bee helped.
— from The Discovery of a World in the Moone Or, A Discovrse Tending To Prove That 'Tis Probable There May Be Another Habitable World In That Planet by John Wilkins

BLADES ( who has had no intention of offering, but is suddenly carried off his feet by the excellence of the opportunity, which is no doubt responsible for many proposals ).
— from Quality Street: A Comedy by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie

[72] I have made arrangements for completing the exploration of this cave, and the one which is next described, in the course of the present summer.
— from Ice-Caves of France and Switzerland by G. F. (George Forrest) Browne

[Pg 67] had been preparing a new issue of stamps before the war, and had ordered machinery in England, which at the time of writing is not delivered, but which will probably be delivered to the Government at Havre, where temporary arrangements will be made to supply Belgian stamps to the inhabitants of the small part of the country not in the hands of the enemy, and incidentally to be ready to reorganise the Belgian postal system as the Germans get driven further and further back to their own country.
— from The Postage Stamp in War by Frederick John Melville

I wonder if the French will get any good ideas from the one which is not destroyed.
— from Over Periscope Pond Letters from Two American Girls in Paris October 1916-January 1918 by Esther Sayles Root

But with all this rush of business, it seemed to me that the owners were in no danger of becoming plutocrats, for the charge for a day's garage, cleaning the car, polishing the brass and making a slight repair, was five shillings.
— from British Highways and Byways from a Motor Car Being a Record of a Five Thousand Mile Tour in England, Wales and Scotland by Thos. D. (Thomas Dowler) Murphy