I used to think, as I sat looking at M. Paul, while he was knitting his brow or protruding his lip over some exercise of mine, which had not as many faults as he wished (for he liked me to commit faults: a knot of blunders was sweet to him as a cluster of nuts), that he had points of resemblance to Napoleon Bonaparte.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

Whether Chin Jung complied or not to his advice is not known, but the following chapter will explain.
— from Hung Lou Meng, or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel, Book I by Xueqin Cao

Perhaps Nature sported or blundered, and this combination ought not to have existed; I only know it did exist.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

They clamoured once; now they have their misgivings; make their dolorous representations.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

Bacchus and Venus; or, A Select Collection of near Two Hundred of the most Witty and Diverting Songs and Catches in Love and Gallantry, with Songs in the Canting Dialect, with a Dictionary explaining all Burlesque and Canting Terms , 12mo.
— from The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical and Andecdotal by John Camden Hotten

In the conquest of Nice, they had been powerfully assisted by the wealth and knowledge of the Greek emperor: his absence was poorly supplied by some Genoese and Pisan vessels, that were attracted by religion or trade to the coast of Syria: the stores were scanty, the return precarious, and the communication difficult and dangerous.
— 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

“Isn’t the climate of Nigeria too horrible?”
— from Howards End by E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster

“His being so sure of succeeding was wrong,” said she, “and certainly ought not to have appeared; but consider how much it must increase his disappointment!”
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

They arrested all those whom they found in the streets which had been surrounded, whether combatants or not, they had all the wine-shops and the cafés opened, they closely searched the houses, they seized all the men whom they could find, only leaving the women and the children.
— from The History of a Crime The Testimony of an Eye-Witness by Victor Hugo

He concealed himself for some time with his bandits, the remnant of Gaspard Bès’s troop, in the county of Nice; then he made his way to Piédmont, and suddenly reappeared in France, in the vicinity of Barcelonette.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

He now beheld Luxima more lovely than he had ever seen her; she was gracefully occupied, and there was something picturesque, something almost fantastic , in her appearance, which gave the poignant charm of novelty to her air and person.
— from The Missionary: An Indian Tale; vol. III by Lady (Sydney) Morgan

"The story he told me was a curious one, namely, that his [ 128 ] master had arrived from Salisbury at two o'clock, and at half-past two had sent him out upon a message down to Richmond.
— from The Doctor of Pimlico: Being the Disclosure of a Great Crime by William Le Queux

“The Chief ought not to have keys loose like that in his old duds—Doc might knock them down the way I did and be too busy mooning over something to hear the noise—and a key would be lost.”
— from The Ghost of Mystery Airport by Van Powell

Frederick Engels, in his reply to Duehring, speaks of Darwin as follows: “He dealt the metaphysical conception of nature the heaviest blow by his proof that all organic beings, plants, animals, and man himself, are the products of a process of evolution going on 40 through millions of years.
— from Evolution Social and Organic by Arthur M. (Arthur Morrow) Lewis

But all these considerations ought not to hinder the ordinance of Jesus Christ from having free course in the preaching of the Gospel.
— from Letters of John Calvin, Volume II Compiled from the Original Manuscripts and Edited with Historical Notes by Jean Calvin

He reverses the course of Nature too: he was first the gay butterfly, and then the creeping worm.
— from Life of Johnson, Volume 3 1776-1780 by James Boswell

The change in our conception of Nature that has been wrought by this wonderful discovery is more profound than all changes that went before.
— from Life Everlasting by John Fiske

I have told you that the girl came one night to his room.
— from The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

Other objects will likewise claim your attention, because from the station which the United States hold as a member of the great community of nations they have rights to maintain, duties to perform, and dangers to encounter.
— from State of the Union Addresses (1790-2006) by United States. Presidents

But, this continuing, it chanced one night that he was, without the knowledge of himself or his mistress, seen of one of the ladies of the convent to take leave of Isabetta and go his ways.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio