I went into the house to get our bank passbook, for there was need to find out where we stood financially.
"I Walked in Arden"
Jack Crawford
Herbert, though his mind was not really intent on the subject, asked some question of the girl as to the amount of meal that had been sold, and desired to see the little passbook that they kept at the shop.
"Castle Richmond"
Anthony Trollope
Variations are an organism's way of getting over an unexpected discrepancy between its resources as shown by the fly-leaves of its own cheques and the universe's passbook; the universe is generally right, or would be upheld as right if the matter were to come before the not too incorruptible courts of nature, and in nine cases out of ten the organism has made the error in its own favour, so that it must now pay or die.
"Luck or Cunning?"
Samuel Butler