This old dame had once been young—astonishing fact!
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

“You may be a number one, tip-top minin’ expert, all right all right,” the dog-musher delivered himself oracularly, “but you missed the chance of your life when you was a boy an’ didn’t run off an’ join a circus.”
— from White Fang by Jack London

Sophron then collected all his strength, and, seizing his fainting adversary by the neck and throat, grasped him still tighter in his terrible hands, till the beast, incapable either of disengaging himself or breathing, yielded up the contest and his life together.
— from The History of Sandford and Merton by Thomas Day

The world has other cares;— None is ambitious of the dangerous honor Of being your fourth husband—you destroy Your wooers like your husbands.
— from Mary Stuart: A Tragedy by Friedrich Schiller

How was she to know that generous double helpings of beef, Yorkshire pudding, potatoes, summer cabbage, rhubarb pie and custard were hidden behind the books on the dining-room shelf, for the later refreshment of a runaway boy at present lurking in the straw-loft?
— from The Wonderful Garden; or, The Three Cs by E. (Edith) Nesbit

Brown was gone (i. e. from Salt Lake Valley) three months and seven days, History of Brigham Young, Ms. March 6th, 1848, p. 16.
— from The Mormon Battalion, Its History and Achievements by B. H. (Brigham Henry) Roberts

I attempted to draw her out, but you know how difficult such [369] a thing would be.
— from Lily Pearl and The Mistress of Rosedale by Ida Glenwood

It crossed the young girl’s mind how inconceivable it was that this haggard image of desolation had once been young and soft-limbed, had once danced out on summer mornings to meet the sun as any other child!
— from Rodmoor: A Romance by John Cowper Powys

A courtesan is too exacting; I should not love you like the simple, artless girl who felt for a moment the delightful hope of being your companion, of making you happy, of doing you honor, of becoming a noble wife.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

His old heart, warmed by the youthful spirit that drew him out, became youthful again as he lived over the days gone by.
— from Wild Roses: A Tale of the Rockies by Howard R. (Howard Roscoe) Driggs