With these her gifts, if rather late my muse, My age and labours must her fault excuse.
— from Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Jean de La Fontaine

[She goes into room left.
— from The Playboy of the Western World: A Comedy in Three Acts by J. M. (John Millington) Synge

The corporal stood silent.—You don't ask him right, said my uncle Toby, raising his voice, and giving it rapidly like the word of command:—The fifth—cried my uncle Toby.—I must begin with the first, an' please your honour, said the corporal.—
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

(4) Water, urine, wine, or any other simple liquid you can get in reasonably large quantities will dilute gasoline fuel to a point where no combustion will occur in the cylinder and the engine will not move.
— from Simple Sabotage Field Manual by United States. Office of Strategic Services

I now began to look upon me as of a gentleman in reality; learned to dance, frequented plays during the holidays; became the oracle of an ale-house, where every dispute was referred to my decision; and at length contracted an acquaintance with a young lady, who found means to make a conquest of my heart, and upon whom I prevailed, after much attendance and solicitation, to give me a promise of marriage.
— from The Adventures of Roderick Random by T. (Tobias) Smollett

In 1819 and 1820, for forty sous per month, she kept house for a young author,[*] who lived in a garret in rue Lesdiguieres.
— from Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z by Anatole Cerfberr

perhaps that lacerated love would have grown into real love, perhaps Katya longed for nothing more than that, but Mitya's faithlessness had wounded her to the bottom of her heart, and her heart could not forgive him.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

‘Michael Reddy (our next witness) saw the gentry down on the Greenlands in regimentals like an army, and in daylight.
— from The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. (Walter Yeeling) Evans-Wentz

The corporal stood silent.—You don’t ask him right, said my uncle Toby, raising his voice, and giving it rapidly like the word of command:——The fifth———cried my uncle Toby.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

My God, I rather look to Thee— Scudder My God, I thank Thee: may no thought—
— from American Unitarian Hymn Writers and Hymns by Henry Wilder Foote

Whereas every coin spent in cultivating ground, in repairing lodging, in making necessary and good roads, in preventing danger by sea or land, and in carriage of food or fuel where they are required, is so much absolute and direct gain to the whole nation.
— from The Queen of the Air: Being a Study of the Greek Myths of Cloud and Storm by John Ruskin

Who a good quarter century and a half ago Put his true work in the brown instrument, And by the nice adjustment of its frame Gave it responsive life, continuous With the master's finger-tips, and perfected Like them by delicate rectitude of use.”
— from The Village Watch-Tower by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

If the plants are growing in rich, loose, loamy soil, so the fibrous roots may easily run in every direction, the whole bed will soon be thickly set with plants.
— from Ginseng and Other Medicinal Plants A Book of Valuable Information for Growers as Well as Collectors of Medicinal Roots, Barks, Leaves, Etc. by A. R. (Arthur Robert) Harding

“Dinky-Dunk,” I said, interrupting my lord and master at his reading, “if God is really love, as the Good Book says, I don’t see why they ever started talking about the Lamb of God.” “Why shouldn’t they?” asked Diddums, not much interested.
— from The Prairie Mother by Arthur Stringer

Grind in raw linseed oil 3cwt.
— from Paint & Colour Mixing A practical handbook for painters, decorators and all who have to mix colours, containing 72 samples of paint of various colours, including the principal graining grounds by Arthur Seymour Jennings

It continues to flourish, not because smokiness is cheaper than cleanliness—it is dearer—but because a greater nuisance than smoke is the nuisance of a change, and because human nature in general is rather like Mrs Garlick: its notion of economy is to pay heavily for the privilege of depriving itself of something—mutton or cleanliness.
— from The Matador of the Five Towns and Other Stories by Arnold Bennett