I know I should hate to be lying in bed and have Gussie popping up like that.
— from Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse

Twelve years after his return, the eunuch was chosen to achieve the conquest which had been left imperfect by the first of the Roman generals.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

before long I became one of his assistants, and in the end of 1866 was finally transferred from the Yokohama Consulate (where I had been appointed interpreter early in 1865) to the Legation.
— from A Diplomat in Japan The inner history of the critical years in the evolution of Japan when the ports were opened and the monarchy restored, recorded by a diplomatist who took an active part in the events of the time, with an account of his personal experiences during that period by Ernest Mason Satow

When the good housewife has the rugs and carpets beaten, let it be done on the grass, if possible, and not when they are hung on a line and so allowed to break with their own weight.
— from The Oriental Rug A Monograph on Eastern Rugs and Carpets, Saddle-Bags, Mats & Pillows, with a Consideration of Kinds and Classes, Types, Borders, Figures, Dyes, Symbols, etc. Together with Some Practical Advice to Collectors. by William De Lancey Ellwanger

"I don't know how you mean," said the businessman, "he's been my business lawyer - I buy and sell cereals - he's been my business lawyer since I took the business over, and that's about twenty years now, but perhaps you mean my own trial and he's been representing me in that since it started, and that's been more than five years.
— from The Trial by Franz Kafka

But of all these pictures (and to this we should give consideration), those on the roof, as being less injured by dust and by other accidents, have been preserved much better than the others.
— from Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 01 (of 10) Cimabue to Agnolo Gaddi by Giorgio Vasari

Insomnia at night as before, but I am no more wakeful in the morning and don't listen to my wife, but lie in bed.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Indeed, if you would know the plain truth, as we are credibly informed, the excess of their sufferings and the necessities of their present distress have made them desperate; they have no confidence in their force, but wish to try their fortune in the only way they can, and either to force their passage and sail out, or after this to retreat by land, it being impossible for them to be worse off than they are.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

you had better lie in bed another day.”
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Now, lest anyone should entertain the injurious and erroneous suspicion that this is mere burlesque let it be stated here that what has preceded, and what follows is the result, in every instance, of accurate mathematical work.
— from The Little Cryptogram A Literal Application to the Play of Hamlet of the Cipher System of Mr. Ignatius Donnelly. by Joseph Gilpin Pyle

That this eternity is to be one of bodily pain—of "torment "—is the literal teaching of Scripture, which has been literally interpreted by the theologians, the poets, and the artists of many long ages which followed the acceptance of the recorded legends of the church as infallible.
— from Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works by Oliver Wendell Holmes

I spoke quietly enough, but Louis immediately burst into voluble denial.
— from The Gold Bag by Carolyn Wells

But let it be consider’d, said Don Pedro , that the not punishing of so heinous an Offence, may be the Occasion of their falling into it again, which would exclude all Mercy.
— from The Discovery and Conquest of the Molucco and Philippine Islands. Containing their History, Ancient and Modern, Natural and Political: Their Description, Product, Religion, Government, Laws, Languages, Customs, Manners, Habits, Shape, and Inclinations of the Natives. With an Account of many other adjacent Islands, and several remarkable Voyages through the Streights of Magellan, and in other Parts. by Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola

4 , and it is worth a careful examination; for, in our opinion, it is the proper way for [52] a man to extricate himself out of the difficulty he has been led into by misjudging the length of the ball.
— from Cricket by A. G. (Allan Gibson) Steel

Far off to southward lay a dim, dark line, which at one time must have been Long Island; but it was irregular now and faint, and showed that the island had been practically submerged or swept away by the vast geodetic changes of the age since the catastrophe.
— from Darkness and Dawn by George Allan England

Let the eagle tear out your eyes if it must be so; but let it be our eagle of the steppe and not a Polish eagle, not one which has flown hither from Polish soil.
— from Taras Bulba, and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

But love is better than life.”
— from The Claw by Cynthia Stockley