Customs are modified in course of time, fashions succeed one another, but such variations are taken no account of in the placid family circle where traditional usages prevail year after year.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

You ho me a milk and butter bill of two 'undred pound, you must 'ave noo laid heggs for your homlets, and cream for your spanil dog.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

In the sole, which you make after finishing the upper part, your intakes must come directly after and before the seam.
— from Encyclopedia of Needlework by Thérèse de Dillmont

The success of my Rienzi had been the source of great annoyance to these gentlemen, who were now established as musical critics to the Dresden press, because I made no effort to win their favour; they were not ill-pleased, therefore, to find an opportunity of pouring out the vitriol of their hatred over the universally popular young musician who had won the sympathy of the kindly public, partly on account of the poverty and ill-luck which had hitherto been his lot.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

The unlimited power you hold over me 222 19 No. 1.
— from Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812 For the First Time Collected and Translated, with Notes Social, Historical, and Chronological, from Contemporary Sources by Emperor of the French Napoleon I

“So I have thought,” said Sancho; “though I can tell you he is fit for anything: what I mean to do for my part is to pray to our Lord to place him where it may be best for him, and where he may be able to bestow most favours upon me.” “You speak like a man of sense,” said the curate, “and you will be acting like a good Christian; but what must now be done is to take steps to coax your master out of that useless penance you say he is performing; and we had best turn into this inn to consider what plan to adopt, and also to dine, for it is now time.” Sancho said they might go in, but that he would wait there outside, and that he would tell them afterwards the reason why he was unwilling, and why it did not suit him to enter it; but he begged them to bring him out something to eat, and to let it be hot, and also to bring barley for Rocinante.
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

and, I hope, I shall forbear thinking of you with the least shadow of that fondness my foolish heart had entertained for you: I bear you, however, no ill will; but the end of my detaining you being over, I would not that you should tarry with me an hour more than needed, after the ungenerous preference you gave, at a time that I was inclined to pass over all other considerations, for an honourable address to you; for well I found the tables entirely turned upon me, and that I was in far more danger from you, than you were from me; for I was just upon resolving to defy all the censures of the world, and to make you my wife.
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

I must now come to the unpleasant part, your business.
— from Private Letters of Edward Gibbon (1753-1794) Volume 2 (of 2) by Edward Gibbon

"The winter glided along with its witching gayeties, and, though the young Christian was never tempted to join the giddy multitude in their unlawful pastimes, yet his views were more lax than they had been.
— from Tiger and Tom and Other Stories for Boys by Various

117 The rest of his life runs on in this drowzy tenour; unless perhaps you except those intervals, which can hardly be called lucid , when his half-closed understanding seems stunned, rather than awakened, by party-rage, election bustle, and the noise of faction.
— from The Works of Richard Hurd, Volume 4 (of 8) by Richard Hurd

But in a few days’ time he returned with all his gens, and they are many, and took possession of the upper pond, your pond, and at this time they are repairing the dam and backing the water up into the new growth of food trees, which are as thick as they can stand.
— from Blackfeet Tales of Glacier National Park by James Willard Schultz

Oh heavens, mad to possess, you stole the unloving prize!--Yes, you lov'd her, false as you are, you did; perjur'd and faithless.
— from Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister by Aphra Behn

The young ones, before their first moulting, have the upper part of the body light brown, speckled with black, the under pale yellow streaked with black; the older they grow the more of an olive tint the breast acquires.
— from The Natural History of Cage Birds Their Management, Habits, Food, Diseases, Treatment, Breeding, and the Methods of Catching Them. by Johann Matthäus Bechstein

Come to us; put yourself in my hands, and, by Jove!
— from A Noble Name; or, Dönninghausen by Claire von Glümer

The rest of the under parts yellowish-white, with broad transverse spots of brownish-red; the abdomen yellowish-red; and the under tail-coverts mottled with brown.
— from Ornithological Biography, Volume 1 (of 5) An Account of the Habits of the Birds of the United States of America by John James Audubon

Paul tells us, ‘Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh.’
— from Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V) by Alexander Maclaren

It is not the usual procedure, you must acknowledge, and they wouldn't be human if they didn't think your action—or lack of action—peculiar and comment on it outside.
— from The First Man by Eugene O'Neill