Whether if the commonwealth should call him to a settlement of accounts, would it not justly say, You have pay by the year, perform labour by the year?
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy

"And what will you do with it now, Jacque?" said I.
— from The History and Remarkable Life of the Truly Honourable Colonel Jacque, Commonly Called Colonel Jack by Daniel Defoe

A Montenegrin whipping is no joke; so severe is it, that death often follows the punishment.
— from Albania: A Narrative of Recent Travel by E. F. (Edward Frederick) Knight

"[44] That offers of purchase were no less likely than those of sale to be prompted by such considerations is suggested by another Georgia letter: "I have made every attempt to get the boy Frank, the son of James Nixon; and in order to gratify James have offered as far as five hundred dollars for him—more than I would pay for any negro child in Georgia were it not James' son.
— from American Negro Slavery A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime by Ulrich Bonnell Phillips

It was in no just sense a commercial transaction, but an act of war.
— from Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 17 (of 20) by Charles Sumner

It was in no jocular strain, yet it was with simplicity, that she inquired, weighing the money in her two palms: “Don’t you think it’s too much?”
— from The Aspern Papers by Henry James

That the storm had ruined the crops was indeed no joke, she said; but it was far better that ice should fall from heaven upon the earth than that it should fall into heaven and break everything to pieces there.
— from The Forest Schoolmaster by Peter Rosegger

“I was–” “I never joke,” said Roy, “except from Mondays to Saturdays, and on Sundays, morning, afternoon and evening.”
— from Roy Blakeley in the Haunted Camp by Percy Keese Fitzhugh