Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

He ended; and his words, replete with guile, Into her heart too easy entrance won: Fixed on the fruit she gazed, which to behold Might tempt alone; and in her ears the sound Yet rung of his persuasive words, impregned With reason, to her seeming, and with truth: Mean while the hour of noon drew on, and waked An eager appetite, raised by the smell So savoury of that fruit, which with desire, Inclinable now grown to touch or taste, Solicited her longing eye; yet first Pausing a while, thus to herself she mused.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton

Happily, the good dame is no gossamer, but a figure of rotundity and fleshly substance; else would these aerial tormentors whirl her aloft like a witch upon a broomstick, and set her down, doubtless, in the filthiest kennel hereabout.
— from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Why with the time do I not glance aside To new-found methods, and to compounds strange?
— from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare

If the distance round such depressions is not great, the water may be carried round circuitously; but if the valleys are extensive, the course will be directed down their slope.
— from The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio

Meanwhile the hour of Noon drew on, and wak’d An eager appetite, rais’d by the smell So savorie of that Fruit, which with desire, Inclinable now grown to touch or taste, Sollicited her longing eye; yet first Pausing a while, thus to her self she mus’d.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton

No doubt I now grew
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe

I demanded, in no gentle tone.
— from Twelve Years a Slave Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana by Solomon Northup

In like manner, it cannot be doubted that the clear exhibition of duties in opposition to all the claims of inclination, gives rise to the consciousness of freedom, and that the glorious order, beauty, and providential care, everywhere displayed in nature, give rise to the belief in a wise and great Author of the Universe.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

" "Did I?" "Now God has taken her...." "I wish I thought so, Raul." "Don't say that," he objected.
— from When the Owl Cries by Paul Alexander Bartlett

Birds of the air carry news, and do I not go into the house and eat
— from Bonnie Prince Fetlar: The Story of a Pony and His Friends by Marshall Saunders

Did I not give him my promise: "If I should ever regret my resolution," I said to him.
— from The Dangerous Age: Letters and Fragments from a Woman's Diary by Karin Michaëlis

For a man who has confessed as Mr. Crawford has done, is not going to run away from the consequences of his confession.”
— from The Gold Bag by Carolyn Wells

Yet, he knew there was no time to waste; in spite of the dying creature's snappings and plungings at him--its ferocity as great in death, if not greater, as in life--he must regain his sword.
— from Clash of Arms: A Romance by John Bloundelle-Burton

“While we are drifting onward with all this ice the danger is not great; but if we lay to while boats were out fishing we should soon be fast, and it might be months before we got free.
— from Steve Young by George Manville Fenn

The daisies always say 'a little'; it is the girl's ear that tricks her, and makes her hear 'till death,'—a folly and falsehood of which the daisy is not guilty."
— from Bébée; Or, Two Little Wooden Shoes by Ouida

Mr. Peyton dealt in no general topics of that kind; his discourse was secular: it ran upon Neville's Cross, Neville's Court, and the Baronetcy; and he showed Francis how and why this title must sooner or later come to George Neville and the heirs of his body.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 100, February, 1866 A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics by Various

That dismay is not greater against a background of red fire.
— from Dramatic Technique by George Pierce Baker