Ever since I was condemned, my confessor has besieged me; he threatened and menaced, until I almost began to think that I was the monster that he said I was.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

“Are you quite sure, then, that you WILL come to see him often?” asked Biddy, stopping in the narrow garden walk, and looking at me under the stars with a clear and honest eye.
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

I found in the office Major Pelodoro, who could not control his joy when he saw me in a military uniform, and hugged me with delight.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

They certainly are made under very singular circumstances; still at the same time, as far as it goes, and to a certain extent of course’ (Mrs. Nickleby’s customary qualification), ‘they must be gratifying and agreeable to one’s feelings.’
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

Bread may not always nourish us; but it always does us good, it even takes stiffness out of our joints, and makes us supple and buoyant, when we knew not what ailed us, to recognize any generosity in man or Nature, to share any unmixed and heroic joy.
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

But Isabella became only more and more urgent, calling on her in the most affectionate manner, addressing her by the most endearing names.
— from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

He represented to her, in a clear light, the danger of her present situation, that of listening to promises of amendment, made under the influence of strong passion, and the slight hope, which could attach to a connection, whose chance of happiness rested upon the retrieval of ruined circumstances and the reform of corrupted habits.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

This was a most unwelcome hearing, for though he might think nothing of what had passed, it would be quite distressing to her to see him again so soon.
— from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

At my uncle’s, religion was far more tiresome, because they made it an employment; with my master I thought no more of it, though my sentiments continued the same: I had no companions to vitiate my morals: I became idle, careless, and obstinate, but my principles were not impaired.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Tank de Lord, tank de Lord, for bringin' de brave norden solders to fight our battles, and make us free, like oder people, and de Lord bress you, my son, an' I hope you git back to your own people, an' not a har of your head be touched."
— from The Scout and Ranger Being the Personal Adventures of Corporal Pike of the Fourth Ohio cavalry by James Pike

"Some months after my fourteenth birthday, my darling mother was taken from me in the mortal form, very suddenly and most unexpectedly.
— from Solaris Farm: A Story of the Twentieth Century by Milan C. Edson

The other ladies of the Court were a little in awe of the Demoiselle de Luxemburg, and did not seek her when they wished to indulge in the gossip whose malice and coarseness she kept in check; but if they were anxious, or in trouble, they always came to her as their natural consoler; and the Countess Jaqueline, bold and hoydenish as she was, kept the license of her tongue and manners under some shadow of restraint before her, and though sometimes bantering her, often neglecting her counsel, evidently felt her attendance a sort of safeguard and protection.
— from The Caged Lion by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge

Though the August day is innocent of all suggestion of rain, he carries instead of a riding cane a matronly umbrella.
— from All on the Irish Shore: Irish Sketches by E. Oe. (Edith Oenone) Somerville

The sap of the sycamore tree is mentioned by Evelyn as being a most useful adjunct to the brewhouse; he says that one bushel of malt with sycamore sap makes as good ale as four bushels with water alone.
— from The Curiosities of Ale & Beer: An Entertaining History (Illustrated with over Fifty Quaint Cuts) by John Bickerdyke

The narrow harbor, which is not so big as one of the big Liverpool docks, is surrounded on both sides by the prettiest little miniature bays, rock-bound, with grassy knolls, and here and there shady clumps of evergreens; a river opening out above the town into a kind of lake, and spanned by pretty bridges, invites you to a boating excursion; and the fresh green of the lawn-like expanses of grass which reach into the bay from different directions, the rocky little promontories with boats moored near them, the fine snow-covered mountains in the distance, and the pleasantly winding roads leading in different directions into the country, all make up a landscape whose soft and gay aspect I suppose is the more delightful because one comes to it from the somewhat oppressive grandeur of the fir forests in Washington Territory.
— from Northern California, Oregon, and the Sandwich Islands by Charles Nordhoff

Those parts of his book which, considered abstractedly, are most utterly worthless, are delightful when we read them as illustrations of the character of the 395 writer.
— from Critical, Historical, and Miscellaneous Essays; Vol. 2 With a Memoir and Index by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron

6-9, where God is described as making “unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined
— from Five Years in a Persian Town by Napier Malcolm

152 Shoghi Effendi describes this process of world unification as the “Major Plan” of God, whose operation will continue, gathering force and momentum, until the human race has been united in a global society that has banished war and taken charge of its collective destiny.
— from Century of Light by Bahá'í International Community