All was so still at that early hour, that the few pale people whom they met seemed as much unsuited to the scene, as the sickly lamp which had been here and there left burning, was powerless and faint in the full glory of the sun.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

It's gude to be merry and wise, It's gude to be honest and true; It's gude to support Caledonia's cause, And bide by the buff and the blue.
— from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns

Could the air have become heated after the tumbler was taken from the hot suds?
— from How We Think by John Dewey

‘Tis the only prayer I use in all places and conditions, and which I still repeat instead of changing; whence it also happens that I have no other so entirely by heart as that.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Mithridanes, having received this information and Nathan having taken leave of him, privily let his companions, who had, like himself, taken up their sojourn in the palace, know where they should look for him on the morrow; and the new day came, Nathan, whose intent was nowise at variance with the counsel he had given Mithridanes nor was anywise changed, betook himself alone to the coppice, there to die.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

But when the fight becomes hot and the ships are bound together, then let each man show what is in him of manly spirit.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

I am very, very sorry, dearest Pa, to have brought home all this trouble.'
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

But she had regained her presence of mind, and stood composedly in the middle of the room, while her slight smile seemed to put an ever increasing distance between herself and Trenor.
— from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

The summer before that this same friend had let Clyde have an elegant motor car for his own use, and the foolish boy had actually took her out in it one Sunday, there being a pongee motor coat in the car that fit her beautifully so that none of his rich friends could have told she wasn't dressed as smartly as they was.
— from Ma Pettengill by Harry Leon Wilson

The very first time Kentucky took the ball and Dynamite blasted him a trail, they went clean through the defense line of the enemy and were away.
— from Red Dynamite A Mystery Story for Boys by Roy J. (Roy Judson) Snell

King Egelred in this meane time lay sicke at Cossam; and his sonne Edmund had got togither a mightie hoast, howbeit yer he came to ioine battell with his enimies, he was aduertised, that earle Edrike went about to betraie him, and therefore he withdrew with Edrike de Streona fléeth to the Danes.
— from Chronicles (1 of 6): The Historie of England (7 of 8) The Seventh Boke of the Historie of England by Raphael Holinshed

“And I fergot to tell you that somebody’s ‘salted’ over in Burnt Basin,” he answered, turning back.
— from The Fighting Shepherdess by Caroline Lockhart

To shut one's self away from that half of the race life is to shut one's self away from the most vital part of it; it is to live out but half the humanity to which we have been born heir and to use but half our faculties.
— from Twenty Years at Hull House; with Autobiographical Notes by Jane Addams

“I’ve had his description from Miss Raynor and from Brice, here, and they agree that Manning had dark, heavy hair, rather—footballish type.
— from The Man Who Fell Through the Earth by Carolyn Wells

Isn't that dreadful, Bessie!" "I think you'd have a hard time acting as if you were fifty, Dolly," said Bessie, honestly, and trying to suppress a laugh but in vain.
— from The Camp Fire Girls on the Farm; Or, Bessie King's New Chum by Jane L. Stewart