Whatever I had within me that was romantic and dreamy, was encouraged by so much story-telling in the dark; and in that respect the pursuit may not have been very profitable to me.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

The powers of heaven were interested in their cause: Bridget of Sweden, a saint and pilgrim, disapproved the return, and foretold the death, of Urban the Fifth: the migration of Gregory the Eleventh was encouraged by St. Catharine of Sienna, the spouse of Christ and ambassadress of the Florentines; and the popes themselves, the great masters of human credulity, appear to have listened to these visionary females.
— 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

No, Abigail; things past recovery Are hardly cur'd with exclamations: Be silent, daughter; sufferance breeds ease, And time may yield us an occasion, Which on the sudden cannot serve the turn.
— from The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe

This pole may be of any kind of wood except bamboo; so when you have found a suitable tree, take hold of it with the left hand and chop at it thrice with the right, saying a charm as you do so— “Peace be with you, O Prophet Tĕtap, in whose charge is the earth, Peace be with you, O Prophet Noah, Planter of Trees, I petition for this tree to serve as a mooring-post for my crocodile-trap; If it is to kill him (the crocodile), do you fall supine, If it is not to kill him, do you fall prone.”
— from Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula by Walter William Skeat

The houses of his adherents were levelled with the ground: Paschal escaped with difficulty and danger; he levied an army in the patrimony of St. Peter; and his last days were embittered by suffering and inflicting the calamities of civil war.
— 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

" A woman behaves in this way, either because she wakes up from a moment of intoxication, and obeys the word of modesty, which she trembles to have infringed, or simply through prudence or coquetry.
— from On Love by Stendhal

Jesse's mind was fixed upon the things read in newspapers and magazines, on fortunes to be made almost without effort by shrewd men who bought and sold.
— from Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town Life by Sherwood Anderson

In a period of two centuries after the council of Clermont, each spring and summer produced a new emigration of pilgrim warriors for the defence of the Holy Land; but the seven great armaments or crusades were excited by some impending or recent calamity: the nations were moved by the authority of their pontiffs, and the example of their kings: their zeal was kindled, and their reason was silenced, by the voice of their holy orators; and among these, Bernard, 28 the monk, or the saint, may claim the most honorable place.
— 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

I’ve watched ’em break shell an’ come out an’ fledge an’ learn to fly an’ begin to sing, till I think I’m one of ’em.
— from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Brigida looked well enough, but she was at least ten years older than the abbe.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

2. The conference confidently hopes that such an understanding will not weaken but strengthen the bonds of alliance which exist between Serbia and Greece, and that it will be followed by a similar amicable settlement of all outstanding questions between Italy and Greece, so that the Eastern Mediterranean may present a solid bulwark against the German Drang nach Osten.
— from Current History: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times, May 1918 Vol. VIII, Part I, No. 2 by Various

Mrs. Jones is always pretending she’s so intimate with every body,” said a young lady, sotto voce ; but Mrs. Jones was too deeply engaged in the tucks, and lace trimming, and Honiton veil, to hear the doubt and charge.
— from Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXVII, No. 4, October 1850 by Various

Immediately in front of him on the Whitchurch or east side, on lots 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, and 96, all in a row, were enjoyed by sons or near relatives of his, bearing the names respectively of Rufus Rogers, Asa Rogers, Isaac Rogers, Wing Rogers, James Rogers, and Obadiah Rogers.
— from Toronto of Old Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario by Henry Scadding

though thou gazest now O'er the white blossom with earnest brow, Soon will it tire thy childish eye; Fair as it is, thou wilt throw it by.
— from Poetical Works of William Cullen Bryant Household Edition by William Cullen Bryant

A friend of mine, a married man, was going up north to Saratogy, with his wife and sister—a plaguy nice young woman, the sister was, too; well, I don't know how it was, exactly, but somehow or other, it came into my head, especially as my friend Padlock had asked me if I wouldn't like to go up to Saratogy—that I'd go, and I went.
— from The Humors of Falconbridge A Collection of Humorous and Every Day Scenes by Falconbridge

I presume not, if at war with England, because she would always blockade your harbors wherever they were; and if you sent them out, perhaps you would never have to man them again; not because our ships in single combat are not a match for hers, but, because they have more ships than they know what to do with; they would always outnumber you at sea, and they would be able to come up with and capture your four ships.
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 4 (of 16) by United States. Congress

While this postulate asserts the essential truth that a right angle is a determinate magnitude so that it really serves as an invariable standard by which other (acute and obtuse) angles may be measured, much more than this is implied, as will easily be seen from the following consideration.
— from The Teaching of Geometry by David Eugene Smith

Before going farther into this subject it is necessary that we examine briefly some of the old grants made by Great Britain for the purpose of stimulating the formation of Colonies in the New World.
— from Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, Volume 02 (of 14), 1899 by Mississippi Historical Society