A thousand times I commended myself to the mercy of God.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

He prays only once that the cup pass away, and then with submission; and twice that it come if necessary.
— from Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal

And the creative power of Zeus also coincides with him, by reason of which in Cyprus, as I said earlier, shrines are founded and assigned to them in common.
— from The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 1 by Emperor of Rome Julian

The Greeks spoke of the furies as the Eumenides, or gracious ones; Highlanders mentioned by Sir Walter Scott uncover to the gibbet and call it ‘the kind gallows;’ the Dayak will not name the small-pox, but calls it ‘the chief;’ the Laplander calls the bear ‘the old man [ Pg 13] with the fur coat;’ in Ammam the tiger is called ‘grandfather;’ and it is thought that the maxim, ‘Speak only good of the dead,’ came originally from the notion of propitiating the ghost of the departed, [9] who, in laying off this mortal garb, had become endowed with new powers of harming his late acquaintance.
— from British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes

Also, it is to be considered, that in the middle of the day, when the sun was in the zenith, the violence of the heat was too great to stir out; so that about four hours in the evening was all the time I could be supposed to work in, with this exception, that sometimes I changed my hours of hunting and working, and went to work in the morning, and abroad with my gun in the afternoon.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

but as you don't believe me I'll have to admit that the investigating committee brought along three bank employees with them, one of them must have touched your photographs and as soon as I get the chance I'll ask to have him dismissed from the bank.
— from The Trial by Franz Kafka

the three Propositions are so related that, if the first two were true, the third would be true, the Trio is called a ‘ Syllogism ’; the Genus, of which each of the six Terms is a Species, is called its ‘Universe of Discourse ’, or, more briefly, its ‘ Univ. ’; the first two Propositions are called its ‘ Premisses ’, and the third its ‘ Conclusion ’; also the Pair of codivisional Terms in the Premisses are called its ‘ Eliminands ’, and the other two its ‘ Retinends ’.
— from Symbolic Logic by Lewis Carroll

At the time it could not be so clear, since the future was unknown; but now that fifteen hundred years have passed, we see that everything in those three questions was so justly divined and foretold, and has been so truly fulfilled, that nothing can be added to them or taken from them.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

But to the larger number who are not so violently impelled, it is highly essential that they have some better idea of art than that it consists in setting down your canvas before nature and copying it.
— from The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed

The medical student began telling the doctor in a low voice his opinion as to the immediate cause of the attack, and described how the day before yesterday the artist, Vassilyev, and he had visited S. Street.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

In the former it was the Rhodian school of rhetoricians, which, without reverting to all the chaste severity of the Attic style, attempted to strike out a middle course between it and the modern fashion: if the Rhodian masters were not too particular as to the internal correctness of their thinking and speaking, they at least insisted on purity of language and style, on the careful selection of words and phrases, and the giving thorough effect to the modulation of sentences.
— from The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) by Theodor Mommsen

Here I may pause to say that in the account which follows of the events which took place about this time, I can only guarantee the facts and not the dates: I relate everything as it happened; but the day on which it happened may sometimes have escaped my memory, for it is easier to recollect a murder to which one has been an eye-witness, than to recall the exact date on which it happened.
— from Massacres of the South (1551-1815) Celebrated Crimes by Alexandre Dumas

I am going to show you, in fact, that he did this in a moment of aberration, amounting to temporary insanity, caused by the violent distress under which he was labouring.
— from The Works of John Galsworthy An Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of Galsworthy by John Galsworthy

[243] All authorities agree as to the inferior character and status of a great part of the Portuguese officers.
— from A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. 2, Jan.-Sep. 1809 From the Battle of Corunna to the End of the Talavera Campaign by Charles Oman

“One hundred and ten thousand in cold cash,” said the copyreader.
— from The Sky Trail by Graham M. Dean

Perhaps they got the same treatment then as they often do now, and were more praised than read, even by those who professed to look upon him as their teacher in Christ!
— from The Expositor's Bible: The Epistles of St. Paul to the Colossians and Philemon by Alexander Maclaren

Certain towns along the coast had become very prosperous through the manufacture of coral ornaments of various kinds, and large numbers of women were given lucrative employment in this work until, slowly, coral began to go out of fashion, and then the industry commenced to diminish in importance.
— from Women of the Romance Countries (Illustrated) Woman: In all ages and in all countries Vol. 6 (of 10) by John R. (John Robert) Effinger

And all the time, I cannot help wishing that she would leave the singing part of the business, and take to acting not set to music.
— from Records of Later Life by Fanny Kemble

 [Blank Page] When the club had destroyed or driven away into the Original location of pages 137 & 138 desert all the troops it came back to its master; he, still wearing the magic cap, and with his carpet folded up under his arm and his club in his hand, made his way to the king’s apartment.
— from Fairy Tales of the Slav Peasants and Herdsmen by Alexander Chodzko

And what art thou, thou idol ceremony?
— from The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 4 of 9] by William Shakespeare