But if this floating under the iceberg is to last another day before we reach the open sea, I shall be dead first.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne

There really was filth and drunkenness and foolishness and deceit, but with all that one yet felt that the life of the peasants rested on a firm, sound foundation.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Certainly no one was strong enough to control them, least of all their mother, the queen-bee of the hive, on whom nine-tenths of the burden fell, on whose strength they all depended, but whose children were much too self-willed and self-confident to take guidance from her, or from any one else, unless in the direction they fancied.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

Home by water to dinner, and with my father, wife, and Ashwell, after dinner, by water towards Woolwich, and in our way I bethought myself that we had left our poor little dog that followed us out of doors at the waterside, and God knows whether he be not lost, which did not only strike my wife into a great passion but I must confess myself also; more than was becoming me.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

This is only th’ first day an’ I’ve walked—an’ here I am diggin’.” Ben Weatherstaff’s mouth fell open again when he heard him, but he ended by chuckling.
— from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

We may add, that the soul can the more easily escape from this air, which I have often named, and break 28 through it, because nothing is swifter than the soul; no swiftness is comparable to the swiftness of the soul, which, should it remain uncorrupt and without alteration, must necessarily be carried on with such velocity as to penetrate and divide all this atmosphere, where clouds, and rain, and winds are formed, which, in consequence of the exhalations from the earth, is moist and dark: but, when the soul has once got above this region, and falls in with, and recognizes, a nature like its own, it then rests upon fires composed of a combination of thin air and a moderate solar heat, and does not aim at any higher flight; for then, after it has attained a lightness and heat resembling its own, it moves no more, but remains steady, being balanced, as it were, between two equal weights.
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth by Marcus Tullius Cicero

The Trojans pressed forward in a dense body, with Hector striding on at their head.
— from The Iliad by Homer

Half a dozen battles were fought to the death each day and night.
— from The Honor of the Big Snows by James Oliver Curwood

I knew a man who had been a drunkard but who had quit and who hadn't taken a drink for twelve years.
— from Cutting It Out How to get on the waterwagon and stay there by Samuel G. (Samuel George) Blythe

It was the executive and diplomatic branch which took the action toward Cuba.
— from The History of Cuba, vol. 2 by Willis Fletcher Johnson

and dismissed Batilde; we then, by paying half, induced the landlord to lath, plaster, paper, and paint the large lumber-room, and open a door of communication into the passage, by which we avoided entering through the kitchen.
— from Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 437 Volume 17, New Series, May 15, 1852 by Various

After marching along side of them for nearly two miles, and as a disorderly body will always move faster than an orderly one, we had the mortification to see them gradually heading us, until they finally made their escape.
— from Adventures in the Rifle Brigade, in the Peninsula, France, and the Netherlands from 1809 to 1815 by J. (John) Kincaid

As the man thanked her and walked slowly on, Nathalie drew a deep breath, while a troubled light shone in Nita’s eyes, as she cried, “Oh, do you suppose he is going to arrest Philip?”
— from The Liberty Girl by Rena I. Halsey

And, secondly, I pity not, because He had no business to commit a sin, Forbid by heavenly, fined by human laws, At least 't was rather early to begin; But at sixteen the conscience rarely gnaws So much as when we call our old debts in At sixty years, and draw the accompts of evil, And find a deuced balance with the devil.
— from Don Juan by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

; if you see pen or paper in his hand, it is making or checking an account; if there is a disturbance in the street, it is a disputed barter; whether in the streets or in-doors, whether in a coffeehouse, a serai, or a bazaar, whatever the rank, nation, language of the persons around you, traffic, barter, gain are the prevailing impulses; grusch, para, florin, lira, asper, amid the Babel of tongues, are the universally intelligible sounds.
— from The Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign Why It Exists, and How It May Be Extinguished by Henry Charles Carey

I write without plan, order, or date, just as things come into my mind; and I shall now go to the Abbe de Bernis, whom I liked very much, because he was good-natured, and treated me kindly.
— from Court Memoirs of France Series — Complete by Various

Fort Fayette Cannonaded.—Relieved by Sir Henry Clinton.—Galley with Ordnance sunk at Caldwell's. 748 At dawn the next morning the cannons of the captured fort were turned upon the enemy's works at Verplanck's Point under Colonel Webster, and a desultory bombardment was kept up during the day.
— from The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Vol. 1 (of 2) or, Illustrations, by Pen And Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the War for Independence by Benson John Lossing