I was not vain enough to suppose that they loved me, but I could well enough admit that my kisses had influenced them in the same manner that their kisses had influenced me, and, believing this to be the case, it was evident that, with a little cunning on my part, and of sly practices of which they were ignorant, I could easily, during the long night I was going to spend with them, obtain favours, the consequences of which might be very positive.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Each moment I felt increasing upon me that dreadful doubt as to my own identity—as to the continuity of my past and present existence—which is the first sign of that distraction which comes on those who have lost themselves in the bush.
— from Erewhon; Or, Over the Range by Samuel Butler

These, or such as these, I would have to carry out my plan, and in that case his Majesty would find himself well served and would save great expense, and the Turk would be left tearing his beard.
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Gratian was amused by protestations of doubtful fidelity, and the hopes of a support, which could not be effectual; till the arrival of Andragathius, the general of the cavalry of Maximus, put an end to his suspense.
— 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

Nor could I consider the magnitude and complexity of my plan as any argument of its impracticability.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Now, opening this box you would have found within it a heavenly and inestimable drug, a more than human understanding, an admirable virtue, matchless learning, invincible courage, unimitable sobriety, certain contentment of mind, perfect assurance, and an incredible misregard of all that for which men commonly do so much watch, run, sail, fight, travel, toil and turmoil themselves.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

It was no slight additional proof of her unhappiness, that she should so cling to the consolation of my presence, and earnestly desire the company of one whose general tastes and ideas were so little congenial to her own—whom she had completely forgotten in her hour of prosperity, and whose presence would be rather a nuisance than a pleasure, if she could but have half her heart’s desire.
— from Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë

She was curious to learn of the customs of my people and displayed a remarkable knowledge of events on Earth.
— from A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

But, said I, cone to my arms, my dear third parcel, the companion of my poverty, and the witness of my honesty; and may I never deserve the least rag that is contained in thee, when I forfeit a title to that innocence, that I hope will ever be the pride of my life!
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

If, after doing so, one simply knocks out all the central inferences and presents one’s audience with the starting-point and the conclusion, one may produce a startling, though possibly a meretricious, effect.
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

To this class one may perhaps assign the last two of the daily papers, the "Post" and the "Pall-Mall Gazette," the latter of which, however, was firmly on the side of the North; it only started during the final stages of the war,—a time when (be it said without any derogation from the sincerity of the Pall-Mall Gazette) some other papers also would probably, from the aspect of the times, have been better inclined to take the same side, but for finding themselves already up to the armpits in Secessionism.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 100, February, 1866 A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics by Various

Ann Mary herself was of a different opinion; she was twelve years old, if she was small for her age, and she considered herself quite capable of making pies and cup-cake.
— from Young Lucretia and Other Stories by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

I took the paper, which was not folded up; but the badly-written Romaic was unintelligible to me, so I put it into my pocket, and away we went, my new friend waving his hand to us as we passed out of the market-place; and we were soon trotting along through the open country towards the hills which shoot out from the base of the great chain of Mount Pindus, a mountain famous for having had Mount Ossa put on the top of it by some of the giants when they were fighting against Jupiter.
— from Visits to Monasteries in the Levant by Robert Curzon

My under-study had entered heartily into my scheme, and by his directions the men had brought with them everything needed to carry out my plans, and in a very short time
— from The House of Martha by Frank Richard Stockton

another's noble collection of meerschaum pipes; another's elevating and refining collection of undecipherable autographs; another's priceless collection of old china; another's enchanting collection of postage-stamps—and so forth and so on.
— from Alonzo Fitz, and Other Stories by Mark Twain

The reader will imagine that in the present instance M'liss and Clytie were preeminent and divided public attention: M'liss with her clearness of material perception and self-reliance, and Clytie with her placid self-esteem and saintlike correctness of deportment.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales With Condensed Novels, Spanish and American Legends, and Earlier Papers by Bret Harte

The war of 1866, it was admitted, showed the necessity of perfecting the organization of the army; yet smooth things were predicted by the Imperial soothsayer, for, on the whole, the horizon, in September, as scanned from Paris, seemed to be clear of menacing possibilities, and a lasting peace was secure!
— from The Campaign of Sedan: The Downfall of the Second Empire, August-September 1870 by George Hooper

If the gas consists of moving particles, and the pressure which it exerts on the sides of the containing vessel is due to the impacts of these particles, it is obvious that by halving the 83 original volume of the containing space we halve the space through which the particles travel, and therefore double the number of their impacts in a given time; in other words, by compressing the gas to half its initial volume we double the pressure it exerts, which is nothing else than the law of Boyle.
— from History of Chemistry, Volume 2 (of 2) From 1850 to 1910 by T. E. (Thomas Edward) Thorpe

He replaced the paper in the envelope, which was addressed Philip Pennycomequick, care of Messrs. Pinch and Squeeze, Solicitors, Nottingham.
— from The Pennycomequicks, Volume 1 (of 3) by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould

The Armenian spoke contemptuously of Mr. Petulengro and his race.
— from Lavengro: The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest by George Borrow