And with more pleasure to her than I think in all the time of our marriage before. 15th (Lord’s day).
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

The prayer-meeting at Uncle Tom’s had, in the order of hymn-singing, been protracted to a very late hour; and, as Uncle Tom had indulged himself in a few lengthy solos afterwards, the consequence was, that, although it was now between twelve and one o’clock, he and his worthy helpmeet were not yet asleep.
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

The object of this was to prevent reinforcements from going to the north side of the river.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant

That is why one speaks of marriage rites but not of a marriage cult, of rites of birth but not of a cult of the new-born child; it is because the events on the occasion of which these rites take place imply no periodicity.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim

Images of the outbursts of trivial anger which he had often noted among his masters, their twitching mouths, closeshut lips and flushed cheeks, recurred to his memory, discouraging him, for all his practice of humility, by the comparison.
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

Arabia, in the opinion of the naturalist, is the genuine and original country of the horse ; the climate most propitious, not indeed to the size, but to the spirit and swiftness, of that generous animal.
— 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

And the king thereof is full rich, and is under the obeissance of Prester John.
— from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Mandeville, John, Sir

The minister quailed before this outburst of sarcasm.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

The psychological doctrine, that the object of Desire is always Pleasure, is liable to collide with the view of Ethical judgments just given: and in any case deserves careful examination.
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick

I grant, that this or that actual thought may be the occasion of volition, or exercising the power a man has to choose; or the actual choice of the mind, the cause of actual thinking on this or that thing: as the actual singing of such a tune may be the cause of dancing such a dance, and the actual dancing of such a dance the occasion of singing such a tune.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 1 and 2 by John Locke

Youthful souls wear out their bodies quicker than old ones; just as a strong young boy romps through a suit of clothes sooner than a weakly old man.
— from Through the Postern Gate: A Romance in Seven Days by Florence L. (Florence Louisa) Barclay

She was still desirous of having the opinion of friends, and more especially she desired the opinion of M. Dumont.
— from Maria Edgeworth by Helen Zimmern

Mrs. Greig's music seemed more suited to a man of forty-two than to one of nineteen, anyway.
— from A Canadian Bankclerk by Jack Preston

My father took me to the neighbouring town, and going into the yard of a small inn, he ordered out a pony and light cart which belonged to him, then paying his bill, he told me to mount upon the seat, and getting up drove away like lightning; we drove for at least six hours without stopping, till we came to a cottage by the side of a heath; we put the pony and cart into a shed, and went into the cottage, my father unlocking the door with a key which he took out of his pocket; there was nobody in the cottage when we arrived, but shortly after there came a man and woman, and then some more people, and by ten o’clock at night there were a dozen of p. 250 us in the cottage.
— from The Romany Rye A sequel to "Lavengro" by George Borrow

Princess Dashkow, also in an officer’s uniform, had preceded her, and had announced to the officers of the guards that the Emperor, Peter the Third, had died suddenly, that the Empress would shortly appear among them in order to receive their homage and their oath of obedience as heiress to the throne and Regent of the Empire during the minority of her son.
— from Famous Assassinations of History from Philip of Macedon, 336 B. C., to Alexander of Servia, A. D. 1903 by Francis Johnson

The articles are entitled The Origin of Totemism, and the object of the writer is to show that on this obscure subject a flood of light has been shed by the lately published researches of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen into the beliefs and practices of the native tribes of central Australia, those tribes being perhaps the best representatives now anywhere surviving of the most primitive condition of the human race.
— from Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, July 1899 Volume LV, No. 3, July 1899 by Various

“And what if we could help mankind, and leave the traces of our work upon it to the end?
— from The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner

Would'st thou have that Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting "I dare not," wait upon "I would," Like the poor cat i' the adage?
— from The Mill Mystery by Anna Katharine Green