I have no hope of its being untrue, but at least I may verify it.”
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

She was now enough aware of Sir James's position with regard to her, to appreciate the rectitude of his perseverance in a landlord's duty, to which he had at first been urged by a lover's complaisance, and her pleasure in it was great enough to count for something even in her present happiness.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

Town lots were no longer salable, traffic ceased, a deadly lethargy fell upon the place once more, the “Weekly Telegraph” faded into an early grave, the wary tadpole returned from exile, the bullfrog resumed his ancient song, the tranquil turtle sunned his back upon bank and log and drowsed his grateful life away as in the old sweet days of yore.
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Charles Dudley Warner

Me, that have been brought up by a lady like Mrs. Alving!
— from Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen

I've worked in new bookstores, used bookstores and libraries.
— from Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

These came unto us, and saluted us in the Grecian language, and said they were bound towards Phello, their own country, and for a while ran along by us, but at last turned their own way and left us, wishing us a happy and prosperous voyage.
— from Lucian's True History by of Samosata Lucian

Overshadowing her are two large banners of impaled arms: one of Hungerford and Botreaux, upheld by a lion; the other of Botreaux and Beaumont, upheld by a griffin.
— from Heraldry for Craftsmen & Designers by Hope, W. H. St. John (William Henry St. John), Sir

It was because a flood of old memories were rushing full upon his mind, bringing up boyhood and ‘long ago.’
— from Gerald Fitzgerald, the Chevalier: A Novel by Charles James Lever

Three days later saw the whole of the force disposed, and when Tom and his two lieutenants reviewed the posts, they could not help but agree that they controlled all the roads communicating with Ciudad Rodrigo, and likely to be used by anyone leaving Wellington's camp.
— from With Wellington in Spain: A Story of the Peninsula by F. S. (Frederick Sadleir) Brereton

On the other hand, the proposal, if accepted, might open the doors to overcrowding in thickly populated areas and to the neglect of the baby boarder, undetected by a local [Pg 51] inspectorate, already overstrained by war-time conditions.
— from The Woman's Part: A Record of Munitions Work by L. K. Yates

We did not go beyond this spot, where the air was icy and the temperature sub-normal, as the tunnel was blocked up by a large boulder, which had evidently recently fallen from the rocks in front.
— from Glacières; or, Freezing Caverns by Edwin Swift Balch

They can neither be felt nor imagined by the mere [188] worldling, nor the sensualist; the sources of that stream of bliss must be unadulterated by aught low, or selfish; it is not enough that “Heart and soul and sense in concert move:” desire must go hand in hand with purity, and virtue be the handmaid of passion, or the blissful scene will lose its fairest and brightest hues.
— from The Prairie-Bird by Murray, Charles Augustus, Sir

When his captains looked into his face, ruddy with youth and strength, his smooth brow, unmarked by a line of care, and felt the charm of his glance, remembering what he had done, it was impossible for them to think that he was only a man like themselves.
— from The Golden Hope: A Story of the Time of King Alexander the Great by Robert H. (Robert Higginson) Fuller

They here passed their time very unpleasantly, and for a long time believed the country to be uninhabited, but at length a savage came to visit them.
— from A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 10 Arranged in systematic order: Forming a complete history of the origin and progress of navigation, discovery, and commerce, by sea and land, from the earliest ages to the present time. by Robert Kerr

Anglicanism, too—uncleansed, as it notoriously is, of a Calvinistic taint, broken up by absolute license of dissent, maintaining a mere outward conformity to an extremely lax discipline—affronted Isaac Hecker's ideal of the communion of man and God; man seeking and God giving the one only revelation of divine truth, unifying and organizing the Christian community: and this in spite of an attraction for the beauty of the Episcopal service which he often confesses in his diary.
— from Life of Father Hecker by Walter Elliott

And now, as 225 you love the flag that waves yonder in the breeze, up, boys, and let them have it!
— from The Recollections of a Drummer-Boy by Henry Martyn Kieffer