And perhaps you would just kindly bring your work across and drink tea with us that night.
— from Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

If you can forge an excuse I almost promise you to believe it.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

But to come to the second reason, whereanent it more instantly behoveth to show you that he hath been wiser than yourselves, since meseemeth you reck nothing of the foreordinance of the Gods and know yet less of the effects of friendship:—I say, then, that you of your judgment, of 498 your counsel and of your deliberation, gave Sophronia to Gisippus, a young man and a philosopher; Gisippus of his gave her to a young man and a philosopher; your counsel gave her to an Athenian and that of Gisippus to a Roman; your counsel gave her to a youth of noble birth and his to one yet nobler; yours to a rich youth, his to a very rich; yours to a youth who not only loved her not, but scarce knew her, his to one who loved her over his every happiness and more than his very life.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

—In a fortnight or three weeks, added my uncle Toby, smiling,—he might march.—He will never march; an' please your honour, in this world, said the corporal:—He will march; said my uncle Toby, rising up from the side of the bed, with one shoe off:—An' please your honour, said the corporal, he will never march but to his grave:—He shall march, cried my uncle Toby, marching the foot which had a shoe on, though without advanceing an inch,—he shall march to his regiment.—He cannot stand it, said the corporal;—He shall be supported, said my uncle Toby;—He'll drop at last, said the corporal, and what will become of his boy?—He shall not drop, said my uncle Toby, firmly.—A-well-o'day,—do what we can for him, said Trim, maintaining his point,—the poor soul will die:—He shall not die, by G.., cried my uncle Toby.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

And I must tell you now, for it is well you should know it, who this girl is; perhaps, and even without any perhaps, you will not have heard anything like it all the days of your life, though you should live more years than sarna."
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

A prouder young woman was seldom seen than she, when, having composed herself, she electrified the family by appearing before them with the letter in one hand, the check in the other, announcing that she had won the prize.
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

In that operation he had suffered long-continued and acute pain; yet, among the many folds of the gut, one had escaped the operators so entirely, that, though they ought to have laid it open with the knife, they never touched it.
— from The City of God, Volume II by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

“Yes, I promise you, as faithfully as you have promised me that this horrible marriage shall not take place, and that if you are dragged before a magistrate or a priest, you will refuse.”
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

“A Puritan, yet disguised as a monk he travels alone in France.”
— from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

The power of adaptation is the guarantee of a perpetual youth.
— from A Short History of the Book of Common Prayer by William Reed Huntington

For Black Eagle really lived and, as perhaps you will agree, lived not in vain.
— from Horses Nine Stories of Harness and Saddle by Sewell Ford

But, if you wish me to go with you, I will stand behind you and prompt you.”
— from The Bashful Lover (Novels of Paul de Kock Volume XIX) by Paul de Kock

By destroying the character of a pupil, you make him feel that he has nothing more to lose or gain, and destroy that kind of interest in his own moral condition which alone will allure him to virtuous conduct.
— from The Teacher Moral Influences Employed in the Instruction and Government of the Young by Jacob Abbott

You would have an under-gardener, and three labourers to assist; but your own wages would not be so large as, perhaps, your acquirements may entitle you."
— from A Whim, and Its Consequences Collection of British Authors Vol. CXIV by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

When you find them putting some kid down as a possibility, you get to that kid quickly.
— from You're on the Air by William Heyliger

I therefore carried you through the air, and placed you in the sleeping apartment of the Princess Navamâlika, feeling sure that no one would disturb you there.
— from Hindoo Tales Or, the Adventures of Ten Princes by active 7th century Dandin

—— ——She will take it, an’ please your honour, said the corporal, just as the Jew’s widow at Lisbon took it of my brother Tom .—— ——And how was that?
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

You must not expect to find a pure young man.
— from A California Girl by Edward Eldridge