Ten o’clock came, and the noise of vehicles ceased, scattered lights began to wink out, all straggling foot-passengers disappeared, the village betook itself to its slumbers and left the small watcher alone with the silence and the ghosts.
— from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

In the animistic stage man ascribes omnipotence to himself; in the religious he has ceded it to the gods, but without seriously giving it up, for he reserves to himself the right to control the gods by influencing them in some way or other in the interest of his wishes.
— from Totem and Taboo Resemblances Between the Psychic Lives of Savages and Neurotics by Sigmund Freud

It may be imagined that I succeeded in putting him off.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

“I don’t know; leastways, I kinder forget; but I thinks it’s—” “Sakes alive, I hope it ain’t Hanner ?”
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

“Not well from here; but I think I see it.—Now
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

"I believe it too," I said, coming to Laura's rescue.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Some would plunge those limbs On fire with bane into the icy streams, Hurling the body naked into the waves; Many would headlong fling them deeply down
— from On the Nature of Things by Titus Lucretius Carus

But if there is something you specially want, I guess you can have it.
— from The Mystery at Dark Cedars by Edith Lavell

But if this is so, sir, why do you not close the gates of the park?
— from Marie Antoinette and Her Son by L. (Luise) Mühlbach

"I do not believe in flattery," he said, "but I think I should add to the qualifications personality and a sense of humour.
— from Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Winston Churchill by Winston Churchill

Seven or eight years ago two labouring men found a very ancient gold chain, which they sold to a dealer who knew the value better than they did; the unlucky-lucky men fared badly in this instance, seeing that they were punished for selling the 'find' without giving notice to the authorities—rather hard lines for rustics, who are not likely to know much about the law of treasure-trove.
— from Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 706 July 7, 1877 by Various

The beauty of the blowpipe is, that it sends hot air (making hot air by the combustion of the flame) against the thing to be heated.
— from The Chemical History of a Candle by Michael Faraday

Now I am alive; but I think I shall die soon ...
— from Leon Roch: A Romance, vol. 2 (of 2) by Benito Pérez Galdós

The idea of a baby is that it shall grow up and become a citizen; if babies remained babies people would soon cease to complain about the fall in the birth-rate.
— from Woman and Womanhood: A Search for Principles by C. W. (Caleb Williams) Saleeby

The rest of the town, which is well laid out, with broad streets running at right angles and planted with trees, consists of smaller shops and native stores, or of private residences—many of the latter built in the Indian style, with broad verandahs and large compounds, well planted and laid out.
— from Two Years on Trek: Being Some Account of the Royal Sussex Regiment in South Africa by Louis Eugène Du Moulin