How to use "advance" in a sentence

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance

Mme Thenardier still said nothing, but a man's voice from inside the house called, 'We'll take seven francs a month, and six months in advance.'

Paying her six months in advance, he told her that he was a ruined Spanish gentleman, and that the little girl was his granddaughter.

Soldiers now occupied the top of the barricade, but were unable to advance any further because the defenders fought so fiercely

At the request of its casino manager, every hotel held a handful of rooms off the market, just in case a few regular customers - high rollers, of course - showed up by surprise, with no advance notice, but with fat bankrolls and no place to stay

Unable to prove his identity, he was required to pay for both nights in advance, which he did, taking the money from a wad of cash he'd stuck in his pocket rather than from the wallet that supposedly had been stolen.