‘God forgive me for saying so,’ said Miss La Creevy, as a wind-up to all her expressions of anger, ‘but I really feel as if I could stick this into him with pleasure.’
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

We were both in recovery for a long time and by the time we got well, we were too much of an embarrassment to them to let go.
— from Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

I was sorry to take him, because I really felt that, belonging to a foot regiment, it was my duty to march with the men.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant

If these, however, are set before anyone as examples to be imitated, respect for duty (which is the only true moral feeling) must be employed as the motive- this severe holy precept which never allows our vain self-love to dally with pathological impulses (however analogous they may be to morality), and to take a pride in meritorious worth.
— from The Critique of Practical Reason by Immanuel Kant

While tying on my bonnet, which had hitherto hung by its ribbons from my idle hand, I vaguely and momentarily wondered to hear the step of but one "ouvrier."
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

When articulation fails in the face of experience; when instinct guides without kindling any prophetic idea to which action may be inwardly re ferred; when life and hope and joy flow through the soul from an unknown region to an unknown end, then consciousness is mystical.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

But not by way of patronage, you know, helping with money; she’s herself preparing the boys in Russian for the high school, and she’s taken the little girl to live with her.
— from Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

God Himself, who is the Author of virtue, shall there be its reward; for, as there is nothing greater or better, He has promised Himself.
— from The City of God, Volume II by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

In our first attempt to double the Cape, when we came up to the latitude of it, we were nearly seventeen hundred miles to the westward, but, in running for the straits of Magellan, we stood so far to the eastward, that we made our second attempt at a distance of not more than four or five hundred miles; and we had great hopes, by this means, to run clear of the ice; thinking that the easterly gales, which had prevailed for a long time, would have driven it to the westward.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

I lopp'd the branchy head: aloft in twain Sever'd the bole, and smoothed the shining grain; Then posts, capacious of the frame, I raise, And bore it, regular, from space to space: Athwart the frame, at equal distance lie Thongs of tough hides, that boast a purple dye; Then polishing the whole, the finished mould With silver shone, with elephant, and gold.
— from The Odyssey by Homer

That is why our English religion has a democratic tinge distasteful to the Latin who, at bottom, is always a philosopher; democratic because it relies for its success, like democratic politicians, upon promises--promises that may or may not be kept--promises that form no part (they are only an official appendage) of the childlike paganism of the south. . . .
— from Old Calabria by Norman Douglas

He should certainly not be bullied into receding from his purchase by anything of this kind, but he would act prudently.
— from Red Rock: A Chronicle of Reconstruction by Thomas Nelson Page

At four o’clock the great bell is rang for a quarter of an hour.
— from The Every-day Book and Table Book. v. 2 (of 3) or Everlasting Calendar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, in past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Month, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the Almanac by William Hone

The country on which these hills border is remarkable for its powers of vegetation, and produces vast groves of vine, elm, chestnut, and similar trees, which grow when stuck in by cuttings.
— from The Journal of Sir Walter Scott From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford by Walter Scott

“Our old governess,” she explained resignedly, in the tone of one who might speak volumes, but is restrained from feelings of loyalty and decorum.
— from Pixie O'Shaughnessy by Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.

This point gained, he was further solicited to cede Kavalla and some 2000 square kilometres of territory incorporated with Greece, to Bulgaria, in return for the future possession of 140,000 square kilometres in western Asia Minor.
— from England and Germany by Emile Joseph Dillon

Young James Stuart of Scotland had been sent by his father, Robert III., to France after the death of his elder brother, the wild Duke of Rothesay, nominally for education, but in reality for safe keeping.
— from The Thames by G. E. (Geraldine Edith) Mitton

"Colonel Campbell thus describes the modus operandi in Chinna Kimedy: 'The miserable Meriah is dragged along the fields, surrounded by a crowd of half-intoxicated Kandhs, who, shouting and screaming, rush upon him, and with their knives cut the flesh piece-meal from his bones, avoiding the head and bowels, till the living skeleton, dying from loss of blood, is relieved from torture, when its remains are burnt and the ashes mixed with the new grain to preserve it from insects.'"
— from Primitive Love and Love-Stories by Henry T. Finck

It was replaced by the 25th Bavarian Infantry Regiment from the 14th Bavarian Division which was dissolved at this time.
— from Histories of two hundred and fifty-one divisions of the German army which participated in the war (1914-1918) by United States. War Department. General Staff