His going away left a vacancy in our lives that has never been filled.
— from The Story of My Life With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy by Helen Keller

‘For God’s sake consider my deplorable condition; and, while I promise to take no step without taking counsel with you, give me, at least, a vote in my own behalf.’
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

The latter is a long and very interesting Upanishad.
— from A History of Sanskrit Literature by Arthur Anthony Macdonell

"I'm awfully sorry, Mr. Otis," gasped out the boy, "but I can't eat any dinner as long as Virginia is lost.
— from The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde

In reality, to depreciate a book maliciously, or even wantonly, is at least a very ill-natured office; and a morose snarling critic may, I believe, be suspected to be a bad man.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

Well, we have got the Turks on the run, at least, and Venice is safe and Lord Lansdowne is not to be taken seriously; and I see no reason why we should be downhearted.'
— from Rilla of Ingleside by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

The companions drove out of the Roman Gate, beneath the enormous blank superstructure which crowns the fine clear arch of that portal and makes it nakedly impressive, and wound between high-walled lanes into which the wealth of blossoming orchards over-drooped and flung a fragrance, until they reached the small superurban piazza, of crooked shape, where the long brown wall of the villa occupied in part by Mr. Osmond formed a principal, or at least a very imposing, object.
— from The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 1 by Henry James

Sometimes, too, he would succeed in inducing Arkady to accompany him; and whenever this was the case the pair would, on the way back, engage in some dispute which always left Arkady vanquished in spite of his superior profusion of argument.
— from Fathers and Sons by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

Nor did Arina Vlasievna go to bed, but at intervals set the study door ajar, in order that she might "see how our Eniusha was sleeping" and look at Vasili Ivanitch: for though nothing of the latter was to be discerned except a bowed, motionless back, even that much afforded her a little comfort.
— from Fathers and Sons by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

Little Fay completely filled a long aching void in her heart.
— from Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey

He found that by inclining the board a little, and vibrating it carefully, all the stones but the diamonds fell off, while the diamonds stuck to the grease.
— from Inventors at Work, with Chapters on Discovery by George Iles

The nearest edge of this mass of wreckage was not a quarter of a mile off from me; but it swept away in a great irregular curve to the right and left and vanished into the golden haze softly—and straight ahead I could see it stretching dimly away from me, getting thicker and closer until it seemed to be almost as solid as a real island would have been.
— from In the Sargasso Sea A Novel by Thomas A. (Thomas Allibone) Janvier

Now I have 131 experienced the delights of a London winter, spent in the bosom of flattery, gayety, and Grosvenor Square; 'tis a poor thing, however, and leaves a void in the mind, but I have had my compting-house duties to attend, my sick master to watch, my little children to look after, and how much good have I done in any way?
— from Autobiography, Letters and Literary Remains of Mrs. Piozzi (Thrale) (2nd ed.) (2 vols.) Edited with notes and Introductory Account of her life and writings by Hester Lynch Piozzi

"Your theory is at least a very ingenious one," observed Locke, "and I am reminded by it of another of the natural phenomena, of the true explanation of which I have not been able to satisfy myself.
— from McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader by William Holmes McGuffey

For instance, how comes it that you are a—I will not say welcome—but at least assured visitor in my kitchen?"
— from Come Out of the Kitchen! A Romance by Alice Duer Miller

She saw the billows shoreward run, She heard the splashing of my oar, Wildly she glanced along the shore, She flung her foam-white arms on high, She cried a weird and wailing cry, And leaped and vanished in the sea.
— from McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXXI, No. 4, August 1908 by Various

[p410] Add, that these lines are luminous, and varied in colour from white to yellow, red, and crimson, and, sometimes, perhaps, to purple and to violet; that they play, in the lower heavens in a field of light, and in the upper over a sky of blue; and the picture of the Aurora Borealis is well nigh complete.
— from The Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature and the Arts, July-December, 1827 by Various

Nor is it so clear that solidity is always a virtue, and lightness a vice in character, any more than in bread, or that the leaven of our institutions works anything else than a wholesome ferment and aeration.
— from The Writings of James Russell Lowell in Prose and Poetry, Volume V Political Essays by James Russell Lowell