My ardent nature, my irresistible love of pleasure, my unconquerable independence, would not allow me to submit to the reserve which my new position in life demanded from me.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

“The Belgian detective who was employed on the case asked me to search for it.”
— from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

I am as sorry as any man to see folk fighting the wrong people and the wrong things, but I'd a deal sooner see them doing that than that they should have no fight in them.
— from Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes

As it is necessary for all men that seek peace, to lay down certaine Rights of Nature; that is to say, not to have libertie to do all they list: so is it necessarie for mans life, to retaine some; as right to governe their owne bodies; enjoy aire, water, motion, waies to go from place to place; and all things else without which a man cannot live, or not live well.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

No; he took me and had me where he shewed me a stately palace, and how the people were clad in gold that were in it; and how there came a venturous man and cut his way through the armed men that stood in the door to keep him out, and how he was bid to come in, and win eternal glory.
— from The Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that which is to come Delivered under the similitude of a dream, by John Bunyan by John Bunyan

For in this oneness standeth the life of all mankind that shall be saved.
— from Revelations of Divine Love by of Norwich Julian

Now they pull up at a lodge, and take on board a well-muffled-up sportsman, with his gun-case and carpet-bag, An early up-coach meets them, and the coachmen gather up their horses, and pass one another with the accustomed lift of the elbow, each team doing eleven miles an hour, with a mile to spare behind if necessary.
— from Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes

The spread of emerald-green and brown, the knolls, the score or two of little haycocks dotting the meadow, the loaded-up wagons, the patient horses, the slow-strong action of the men and pitchforks—all in the just-waning afternoon, with patches of yellow sun-sheen, mottled by long shadows—a cricket shrilly chirping, herald of the dusk—a boat with two figures noiselessly gliding along the little river, passing under the stone bridge-arch—the slight settling haze of aerial moisture, the sky and the peacefulness expanding in all directions and overhead—fill and soothe me.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

But one thing more; is it, in any measure, to Sir Clement that I may attribute the alteration in your behaviour to myself, which, I could not but observe, began the very day after his arrival at the Hot Wells?” “To Sir Clement, my Lord,” said I, “attribute nothing.
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney

Occasionally he would ask me to select the hymns for the services, and this I did as well as I could.
— from T. De Witt Talmage as I Knew Him by Eleanor McCutcheon Talmage

In all these passages that which constitutes a man the son of God is God's choice of him for a special work, while Israel collectively bears the title to suggest God's fatherly love for the people he had taken for his own.
— from The Life of Jesus of Nazareth: A Study by Rush Rhees

The bearer will tell you how [Pg 47] they treat me and my two secretaries.
— from The Last Days of Mary Stuart, and the journal of Bourgoyne her physician by Samuel Cowan

Again Maria Theresa stood before that high Venetian glass, and certainly it did give back the image of a regal beauty.
— from Joseph II. and His Court: An Historical Novel by L. (Luise) Mühlbach

As an hour after midnight they spurted past Hopeville forty minutes to the good, he could not help shouting over a delighted word of commendation to Fogg.
— from Ralph on the Overland Express; Or, The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer by Allen Chapman

For a moment, they saw the parapet with the wire in front of it, and began, as they ran, to pick out in their minds a path through that wire.
— from The Old Front Line by John Masefield

For reply I had a prompt letter from Mr. Godwin asking me to see him at his home.
— from Recollections of a Varied Life by George Cary Eggleston

[x]: he was put in possession of Normandy and Maine, and Robert, providing himself with a magnificent train, set out for the Holy Land, in pursuit of glory, and in full confidence of securing his eternal salvation.
— from The History of England, Volume I From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688 by David Hume

Put about an ounce of butter in a saucepan, and when melted add a small onion chopped; stir, and when nearly fried add also the part of the tomatoes in the colander also chopped; stir half a minute; put in the soaked bread, stir and mix; then salt, pepper, and [346] grated nutmeg; give one boil more, and take from the fire.
— from Hand-Book of Practical Cookery, for Ladies and Professional Cooks Containing the Whole Science and Art of Preparing Human Food by Pierre Blot