He declared that she was congenitally incapable of forming a single letter worthy of the least of Milton's words; but she persisted; and again he suddenly threw himself into the task of teaching her with a combination of stormy intensity, concentrated patience, and occasional bursts of interesting disquisition on the beauty and nobility, the august mission and destiny, of human handwriting.
— from Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw

But all names that are more than empty sounds must signify some idea, which is either in the thing to which the name is applied, and then it is positive, and is looked on as united to and existing in the thing to which the denomination is given; or else it arises from the respect the mind finds in it to something distinct from it, with which it considers it, and then it includes a relation.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 1 and 2 by John Locke

Inferno: Canto VI At the return of consciousness, that closed Before the pity of those two relations, Which utterly with sadness had confused me, New torments I behold, and new tormented Around me, whichsoever way I move, And whichsoever way I turn, and gaze.
— from Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Hell by Dante Alighieri

And so I should be ashamed not to appear more reasonable than the son of Peleus, or to fail to praise, as far as in me lies, what appertains to you, I do not mean gold, or a robe of purple, nay by Zeus, nor raiment embroidered all over, the work of Sidonian women, 224 nor beautiful Nisaean horses, 225 nor the gleam and glitter of gold-mounted chariots, nor the precious stone of India, so beautiful and lovely to look upon.
— from The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 1 by Emperor of Rome Julian

I believe he is of mine;—I am sure he is—I feel akin to him—I understand the language of his countenance and movements: though rank and wealth sever us widely, I have something in my brain and heart, in my blood and nerves, that assimilates me mentally to him.
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë

For a long time the little ones were fed on the fence, and the father was so happy that every few minutes he was forced to retire behind a neighboring tree and "make gladness musical upon the other side."
— from Little Brothers of the Air by Olive Thorne Miller

But all night the army marched, and in the morning Bülow, having found his direction, was near Beauderet and Sauvinières, within easy reach at Gembloux.
— from The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Vol. 4 (of 4) by William Milligan Sloane

Immortality becomes a necessity to any man who seriously sets himself to become like Jesus.
— from Some Christian Convictions A Practical Restatement in Terms of Present-Day Thinking by Henry Sloane Coffin

I do not mean to say that the beginners of such a system of employing capital might not have a great deal to contend with: and it is to their benevolence, and not to any money motives, that I would mainly appeal.
— from The Claims of Labour: An essay on the duties of the employers to the employed by Helps, Arthur, Sir

That was when he stole Benjamin Franklin's picture, and so at last Gainor Wynne, in London, years after, saw my arms on them in a shop and bought them back, and now they are Margaret's."
— from The Red City: A Novel of the Second Administration of President Washington by S. Weir (Silas Weir) Mitchell

According to the common law of the land, no market could be erected so as to be a "nuisance" to another market within a less distance than six miles and a half and a third of another half.—Bracton "De Legibus Angliæ" (Rolls Series No. 70), iii, 584.
— from London and the Kingdom - Volume 1 A History Derived Mainly from the Archives at Guildhall in the Custody of the Corporation of the City of London. by Reginald R. (Reginald Robinson) Sharpe

He was quite raggy, and jammed the lid on the bacon dish, and told me to get on with my breakfast and not talk any more rubbish.
— from Loyal to the School by Angela Brazil