He had been in the most beautiful places in Europe, though he had remained nowhere more than a few days.
— from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

People laugh at forebodings; I do not believe in them myself, but the foreboding of evil, which almost broke my heart as he gave me his farewell kiss, did not deceive me.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Then Cassim grew so envious that he could not sleep, and went to his brother in the morning before sunrise.
— from The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

returned the now unnosed squire; "Tom Cecial I am, gossip and friend Sancho Panza; and I'll tell you presently the means and tricks and falsehoods by which I have been brought here; but in the meantime, beg and entreat of your master not to touch, maltreat, wound, or slay the Knight of the Mirrors whom he has at his feet; because, beyond all dispute, it is the rash and ill-advised bachelor Samson Carrasco, our fellow townsman."
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Which is so, because, till after they come to the use of reason, those general abstract ideas are not framed in the mind, about which those general maxims are, which are mistaken for innate principles, but are indeed discoveries made and verities introduced and brought into the mind by the same way, and discovered by the same steps, as several other propositions, which nobody was ever so extravagant as to suppose innate.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 1 and 2 by John Locke

Waked very betimes in the morning by extraordinary thunder and rain, which did keep me sleeping and waking till very late, and it being a holiday and my eye very sore, and myself having had very little sleep for
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

'I must go and break it to Mrs Boffin.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

"I had been meaning to speak freely to you about your behaviour in that matter, Bertie," she said.
— from Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse

i, p. 343. Beevor and Horsley's paper on electric stimulation of the monkey's brain is the most beautiful work yet done for precision.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James

The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mould; the weight and importance of the actions of princes considered, we persuade ourselves that they must be produced by some as weighty and important causes; but we are deceived; for they are pushed on, and pulled back in their motions, by the same springs that we are in our little undertakings.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

This recommendation by the Assembly, however, and these signatures, do not, as to any signatories, bring into force the Protocol, which, by its terms, must be ratified, the ratifications to be deposited at the Secretariat of the League at Geneva.
— from The Geneva Protocol by David Hunter Miller

Ould days are hard to bring back into the mouth, but they're always inside the head."
— from Indian Tales by Rudyard Kipling

"I suppose none of us can hope to attain to perfect knowledge; but if there must be error, I would for myself rather err in excess of mercy than of justice."
— from Only an Incident by Grace Denio Litchfield

And they believed it the more because Neville made no secret
— from Tales from Dickens by Charles Dickens

The principal detail of note is a western portal which somewhat approaches good Gothic, but in the main, both inside and out, the church has no remarkable features, if we except some modern glass, which is better in colour than most late work of its kind.
— from The Cathedrals of Southern France by M. F. (Milburg Francisco) Mansfield

The ear is the only organ absolutely unblest in this sunny island, the noises being incessant, and most discordant; the shrieking of jackals by night is music compared to that from native instruments, which, in the most remote places, are continually striking up: the drums, trumpets, bells, and squeaking pipes, of a neighbouring village, are now inflicting their torments upon my distracted brain in the most barbarous manner possible.
— from Notes of an Overland Journey Through France and Egypt to Bombay by Emma Roberts

Shortly after his arrival in our country he went by invitation to my brother's house in West Orange, New Jersey, on a visit of some weeks.
— from Memories of a Musical Life by William Mason