I have read a hundred things in Livy that another has not, or not taken notice of at least; and Plutarch has read a hundred more there than ever I could find, or than, peradventure, that author ever wrote; to some it is merely a grammar study, to others the very anatomy of philosophy, by which the most abstruse parts of our human nature penetrate.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

The Tartar was ill and miserable, and, pulling his rags about him, he went on talking about the good things in the province of Simbirsk, and what a beautiful and clever wife he had left at home.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

“Needs pepping up; needs the touch that people like Mrs. Judique could give a place,” he ruminated, as he rattled through the long, crude, airy streets.
— from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

When he was coming she filled the two large blue glass vases with roses, and prepared her room and her person like a courtesan expecting a prince.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

He arrived, paid his respects, and his rank was commanded to be, at the request of my son, immediately on my right hand , and I rewarded him with suitable khilats.
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 or the Central and Western Rajput States of India by James Tod

"No one answered, but suddenly Franka stepped out from behind the bushes and pointed his rifle at him, and was about to pull the trigger when a young man of his party who was of good heart seized him by the arm, and cried out 'twas a coward's act; then two or three followed him, and together they bore Franka down upon the sand; and one of them cried out to Preston— "'This is a wrong business.
— from By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and Other Stories by Louis Becke

Sam laid his hand on the outlaw's shoulder, and pressing his revolver against his head, called on him to surrender.
— from Jim Cummings; Or, The Great Adams Express Robbery by A. Frank Pinkerton

His eye fell on Omobono, flattened against the wall and still in a palsy of fear; for all that has been told since Cornèr had fallen and Polo had run away had occupied barely two minutes.
— from Arethusa by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford

With his left hand Desmond caught at Diggle's sword arm, and, pointing his rapier at his heart, said: "You are my prisoner, Mr. Diggle."
— from In Clive's Command: A Story of the Fight for India by Herbert Strang

"Halt!" said one of the men, stepping in front of Mr. Le Grand and placing his rifle against his breast.
— from Hanover; Or The Persecution of the Lowly A Story of the Wilmington Massacre. by Jack Thorne

At Palermo he received another hint as to the nature of the birds who had paid this homage to royalty, for there he was met by a petition for freedom of the Press.
— from The Revolutionary Movement of 1848-9 in Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany With Some Examination of the Previous Thirty-three Years by C. Edmund (Charles Edmund) Maurice

Upon my expressing my surprise at such an audacious proposal, he replied, "Anderson has allowed these batteries to be built around him, and has permitted so many things to be done, that I don't see why he should not go a step farther and allow this."
— from Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860-'61 by Abner Doubleday

His air of dejection, his pallor, his trembling hands, all proved his remorse and his despair: "She deceived me," he murmured.
— from The Eight Strokes of the Clock by Maurice Leblanc

Yet he was all the time composing, polishing, and publishing; his whole existence was passed in painstaking, and almost drudging authorship; he left no means untried, dishonest as well as fair, to sustain, extend, and perpetuate his reputation; and he pursued every person with inveterate malice who presumed to question his poetical supremacy.
— from The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 1 Poetry - Volume 1 by Alexander Pope