Up betimes, and drinking my morning draught of strong water with Betty Michell, I had not opportunity para baiser la, I by water to White Hall, and there met Creed, and thence with him to Westminster Hall, where we talked long together of news, and there met with Cooling, my Lord Chamberlain’s Secretary, and from him learn the truth of all I heard last night; and understand further, that this stiffness of the Lords is in no manner of kindness to my Lord Chancellor, for he neither hath, nor do, nor for the future likely can oblige any of them, but rather the contrary; but that they do fear what the consequence may be to themselves, should they yield in his case, as many of them have reason.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Come with confidence.” M. Leblanc had written the whole of this.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

and I to Mr. Hales’s, to pay for my father’s picture, which cost me L10 the head and 25s.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

A lighted fagot was now laid at Dr. Ridley's feet, which caused Mr. Latimer to say, "Be of good cheer, Ridley; and play the man.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

To which, this custom, in another place, has some relation, where chastity, but in marriage, is of no esteem, for unmarried women may prostitute themselves to as many as they please, and being got with child, may lawfully take physic, in the sight of every one, to destroy their fruit.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

His address and skill were more than twenty times a match for his adversary, who could make little head against them, even when fortune favoured him with good cards, which was not often the case.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

At dinner-time Mr. Cook came back from London with a packet which caused my Lord to be full of thoughts all day, and at night he bid me privately to get two commissions ready, one for Capt. Robert Blake to be captain of the Worcester, in the room of Capt. Dekings, an anabaptist, and one that had witnessed a great deal of discontent with the present proceedings.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

The street was small and lonely, any one loitering about was, consequently, more likely to be noticed; from time to time people passed in and out of the neighborhood; I was much embarrassed, thinking my person might be known, and the cause that brought me there conjectured; this idea tortured me, for I have ever preferred the honor and happiness of those I love to my own pleasures.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Here there was certainly more light, but only just sufficient to realise the horrible surroundings of the place.
— from Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker

Thus has it been from the beginning, is now, and ever shall be; and as I can make it neither worse nor better, I may as well conclude my letter.
— from The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Volume 01 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The meaning in the early stages of mental development is, however, merely perceptual, and not that which comes much later—that which is implied in the phrase “rational significance.”
— from Animal Behaviour by C. Lloyd (Conwy Lloyd) Morgan

"What cheer, my lad!"
— from The Little Skipper: A Son of a Sailor by George Manville Fenn

She cuist a look ahint her to see her negligee, And we're a' gaun east and wast, we're a' gaun ajee, We're a' gaun east and wast courtin' Mally Lee."
— from David Balfour Being Memoirs Of His Adventures At Home And Abroad, The Second Part: In Which Are Set Forth His Misfortunes Anent The Appin Murder; His Troubles With Lord Advocate Grant; Captivity On The Bass Rock; Journey Into Holland And France; And Singular Relations With James More Drummond Or Macgregor, A Son Of The Notorious Rob Roy, And His Daughter Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson

This appears less natural, and yet the editors were certainly more likely to be in possession of hers than his.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 340, February, 1844 by Various

For this land of the river, its quarter-million square miles stretching far northward to Canada, and far eastward to the Yellowstone, built about with colossal mountains, laced with splendid waterways, jeweled with beautiful lakes, where upheaval and eruption, earthquake and glacier have prepared a home for a great and
— from The Guardians of the Columbia Mount Hood, Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens by John H. (John Harvey) Williams

They were friends; they, were geniuses; but they were both badly afflicted with common moral leprosy.
— from The Greatest English Classic A Study of the King James Version of the Bible and Its Influence on Life and Literature by Cleland Boyd McAfee

(See War Cyclopedia , "Marine League.")
— from A School History of the Great War by Charles Augustin Coulomb

“Not without cause, my lord.
— from The Antiquary — Complete by Walter Scott

Perhaps we can make Langdon believe that his secretary is dishonest."
— from A Gentleman from Mississippi by Frederick R. Toombs

If a game is worth playing well, it is worth knowing well, and knowing it well cannot mean loving it less.
— from The Soul of Golf by P. A. (Percy Adolphus) Vaile