A shadow crept upon me from behind, and when I turned round—it was myself!—my person, my dress, and even my hymn-book.
— from British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes

The tendency of a person to allow himself to be degraded, robbed, deceived, and exploited might be the diffidence of a God among men.
— from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

“The rest of our work must be done, and every moment is of importance.
— from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

Miss Bennet eagerly disclaimed all extraordinary merit, and threw back the praise on her sister's warm affection.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

One day, about eleven months after my return from Spaceland, I tried to see a Cube with my eye closed, but failed; and though I succeeded afterwards, I was not then quite certain (nor have I been ever afterwards) that I had exactly realized the original.
— from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Illustrated) by Edwin Abbott Abbott

Idéalement, l'ensemble de la production intellectuelle devrait être accessible sur le web après dix ans (et même sans aucun délai en ce qui concerne les articles scientifiques).
— from Entretiens / Interviews / Entrevistas by Marie Lebert

For having well and exactly seen, surveyed, overlooked, reviewed, recognized, read, and read over again, turned and tossed over, seriously perused and examined the bills of complaint, accusations, impeachments, indictments, warnings, citations, summonings, comparitions, appearances, mandates, commissions, delegations, instructions, informations, inquests, preparatories, productions, evidences, proofs, allegations, depositions, cross speeches, contradictions, supplications, requests, petitions, inquiries, instruments of the deposition of witnesses, rejoinders, replies, confirmations of former assertions, duplies, triplies, answers to rejoinders, writings, deeds, reproaches, disabling of exceptions taken, grievances, salvation bills, re-examination of witnesses, confronting of them together, declarations, denunciations, libels, certificates, royal missives, letters of appeal, letters of attorney, instruments of compulsion, delineatories, anticipatories, evocations, messages, dimissions, issues, exceptions, dilatory pleas, demurs, compositions, injunctions, reliefs, reports, returns, confessions, acknowledgments, exploits, executions, and other such-like confects and spiceries, both at the one and the other side, as a good judge ought to do, conform to what hath been noted thereupon.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

If a sentence is both declarative and exclamatory, mention the fact.
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by George Lyman Kittredge

I have proceeded truly in that I have just made, and it will certainly be thought I have not sought to palliate the turpitude of my offence; but I should not fulfill the purpose of this undertaking, did I not, at the same time, divulge my interior disposition, and excuse myself as far as is conformable with truth.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The parts must be copiously leeched, and afterwards fomented; strict rest and antiphlogistic regimen must be observed, and when matter has formed, a free opening should be made early, to prevent deep and extensive mischief.
— from Elements of Surgery by Robert Liston

On the breaking out of the rebellion he was the first in his county to volunteer in defense of the Union, and immediately took the field as captain of a company of daring and enterprising men.
— from History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States by William Horatio Barnes

On these, as well as on many others which were in Mr. Parkinson's custody, that gentleman and Mr. Runnington were anxiously engaged during almost every minute of that day and the ensuing one; at the close of which, they had between them drawn up the rough draft of a case, with which Mr. Runnington set off for town by the mail; undertaking to lay it immediately before the Attorney-General, and also before one or two of the most eminent conveyancers of the day, effectually commended to their best and earliest attention.
— from Ten Thousand a-Year. Volume 1. by Samuel Warren

Then he noticed that it was daylight, and, entreating Mathilde not to come out with him, he left the house and crossed the garden with rapid strides, and was soon alone in the country.
— from Abbé Aubain and Mosaics by Prosper Mérimée

Clearly the rector was not what is called in these days an “earnest” man: he was fonder of church history than of divinity, and had much more insight into men's characters than interest in their opinions; he was neither laborious, nor obviously self-denying, nor very copious in alms-giving, and his theology, you perceive, was lax.
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot

To oversee all the details yourself in person; to be at once pilot and captain, and owner and underwriter; to buy and sell and keep the accounts; to read every letter received, and write or read every letter sent; to superintend the discharge of imports night and day; to be upon many parts of the coast almost at the same time—often the richest freight will be discharged upon a Jersey shore;—to be your own telegraph, unweariedly sweeping the horizon, speaking all passing vessels bound coastwise; to keep up a steady despatch of commodities, for the supply of such a distant and exorbitant market; to keep yourself informed of the state of the markets, prospects of war and peace everywhere, and anticipate the tendencies of trade and civilization—taking advantage of the results of all exploring expeditions, using new passages and all improvements in navigation;—charts to be studied, the position of reefs and new lights and buoys to be ascertained, and ever, and ever, the logarithmic tables to be corrected, for by the error of some calculator the vessel often splits upon a rock that should have reached a friendly pier—there is the untold fate of La Prouse;—universal science to be kept pace with, studying the lives of all great discoverers and navigators, great adventurers and merchants, from Hanno and the Phoenicians down to our day; in fine, account of stock to be taken from time to time, to know how you stand.
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

Since the domes of Perigord are much heavier than the Byzantine domes and exert much more outward thrust it was essential for them to have very firm supports.
— from Mediaeval Church Vaulting by Clarence Ward

Our friend, the miner, saw my difficulty, and extricated me from it at once, with a promptitude and skill which deserves record.
— from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XI.—April, 1851—Vol. II. by Various

My name and the things I have done and even my money, meant nothing to her.
— from The Night Horseman by Max Brand