At last he thought, "If thou sellest it, what wilt thou get for it that is of any importance, and if thou eatest it thyself, why, the small turnips would do thee just as much good; it would be better to take it to the King, and make him a present of it."
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Wilhelm Grimm

I am ill, and I know that my days are numbered.”
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

But I do know that about ten times as many people find their lives dull, and unnecessarily dull, as ever admit it; and I do believe that if we busted out and admitted it sometimes, instead of being nice and patient and loyal for sixty years, and then nice and patient and dead for the rest of eternity, why, maybe, possibly, we might make life more fun.”
— from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

Lewis Set out at Sunrise with 24 men, to meet those Soues &c. Several Indians accompanied him Some with Bows & arrows Some withe Spears & Battle axes, a 2 with fusees—the morning fine the Thermometer Stood at 16° below 0, Nought, visited by 2 of the Big Bellies this evening,—one Chief of the Mandans returned from Capt Lewises Party nearly blind—this Complaint is as I am infomd.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

As I advanced in years and understanding, my religious impressions became stronger; fear and trembling often took hold upon me; and what was then my refuge,—what the balm for my wounded spirit?
— from Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ by Aaron Bernstein

We will first exhibit a classification of the names and characteristics of this imaginary being drawn from the gospels and epistles of the Christian bible, by which it will be observed that scarcely any two references to it agree in assigning it the same character or attributes.
— from The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors; Or, Christianity Before Christ by Kersey Graves

And there tempest of the sea took him, and he arrived in an isle.
— from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Mandeville, John, Sir

Now, in nature, as it actually is an object of experience, the free will is not of itself determined to maxims which could of themselves be the foundation of a natural system of universal laws, or which could even be adapted to a system so constituted; on the contrary, its maxims are private inclinations which constitute, indeed, a natural whole in conformity with pathological (physical) laws, but could not form part of a system of nature, which would only be possible through our will acting in accordance with pure practical laws.
— from The Critique of Practical Reason by Immanuel Kant

She only looked at it as it lay on her lap.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

26 Corresponds to an Adjutant in an infantry battalion. 27 Bishop.
— from Sixty Squadron R.A.F.: A History of the Squadron from its Formation by A. J. L. (Alan John Lance) Scott

It cannot be denied, that the Mosaic Narrative thus interpreted gives a just and faithful exposition of the birth and parentage and successive moments of phænomenal sin ( peccatum phænomenon; crimen primarium et commune ), that is, of sin as it reveals itself in time , and is an immediate object of consciousness.
— from Aids to Reflection; and, The Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

This is a year after I am in Japan, sir, before I had seen her.
— from Warren Commission (11 of 26): Hearings Vol. XI (of 15) by United States. Warren Commission

With regard to the Corbenic-Grail adventures, I am inclined, as I said before, to look upon them as due to the influence of the Gawain story, and as already existing, in a purely adventurous form, in the Lancelot , before it was formally united to the Grail Quest.
— from The Legend of Sir Lancelot du Lac Studies upon its Origin, Development, and Position in the Arthurian Romantic Cycle by Jessie L. (Jessie Laidlay) Weston

What such a Gospel would seem to do would be to accentuate in all its parts the urgency of obedience in order to acceptance; the vital importance on the one hand of an internal change in our nature (through sacramental operation, according to many); and then on the other hand the practice of Christian virtues, with the hope, in consequence, of acceptance, more or less complete, in heaven.
— from The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle of St Paul to the Romans by H. C. G. (Handley Carr Glyn) Moule

But ere long I began to find the confinement as irksome as it was to him, and to concentrate all my faculties on a project of escape.
— from Cressy and Poictiers: The Story of the Black Prince's Page by John G. (John George) Edgar

Cast off my lashings, and, lad as I am, I will thrash you before all hands for daring to make such an infamous proposal to me!”
— from The Missing Merchantman by Harry Collingwood

Suddenly Saddles, who had been gazing abstractedly into the water under my boat, hurried into the tent, and in an instant reappeared with the gun I had given him in his hands.
— from Four Months in a Sneak-Box A Boat Voyage of 2600 Miles Down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and Along the Gulf of Mexico by Nathaniel H. (Nathaniel Holmes) Bishop