Captain Nemo decided to make for the ocean floor by submerging on an appropriately gradual diagonal with the help of his side fins, which were set at a 45° angle to the Nautilus's waterline.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne

And strive also very earnestly to guard against and subdue those faults which displease thee most frequently in others.
— from The Imitation of Christ by à Kempis Thomas

I must not only perform my duty to my friends, but also discharge the debt I owe to my own interest.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

He said to my wife, Be wary of the monkey; that is as much as if she should be cheery, and take as much delight in a monkey as ever did the Lesbia of Catullus in her sparrow; who will for his recreation pass his time no less joyfully at the exercise of snatching flies than heretofore did the merciless fly-catcher Domitian.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

Upon their delivering the message from Alcibiades, telling them to hold out and to show a firm front to the enemy, and saying that he had great hopes of reconciling them with the army and of overcoming the Peloponnesians, the majority of the members of the oligarchy, who were already discontented and only too much inclined to be quit of the business in any safe way that they could, were at once greatly strengthened in their resolve.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

'What does this mean for me?'
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

While we were at breakfast, a letter was delivered to me from my aunt.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

"The most curious thing of all," said Rosny, "is that we shall always love him—put down his fickleness to the account of others, cherish him as a deceived woman does the man from whom she cannot wholly tear her heart!"
— from The White Plumes of Navarre: A Romance of the Wars of Religion by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett

I am well aware that, in such imperfect reports of, for the most part, extemporaneous utterances, often most hurriedly corrected, there may be found abundant ground for criticism; but, if this book may be the means of leading only a few souls to devote themselves more fully to God and to the salvation of men, I shall be more than compensated for any unfriendly criticism with which it may meet.
— from Godliness : being reports of a series of addresses delivered at James's Hall, London, W. during 1881 by Catherine Mumford Booth

I went alone to Dawson to my father and brother, surprising them greatly when I quietly walked up to shake hands with them at their work.
— from A Woman who went to Alaska by May Kellogg Sullivan

The Philadelphia Public Ledger held the scales:— “Although Mr. Sumner, and Massachusetts at his back, are disposed to move faster than the rest of the North upon the Slavery Question, there is no doubt that whatever amount of injury, consistent with the Laws of War, inflicted on the South, will bring this Rebellion most speedily to an end will find the next Congress prepared at least to consider it.
— from Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 07 (of 20) by Charles Sumner

Even by the great and mighty God, who is all-present, and who beholdeth all thy ways, and who is able to cast thy soul into Hell! Therefore, take care that thou deliver thy message faithfully.’”
— from When the Holy Ghost is Come by Samuel Logan Brengle

Incalculable privations, supported without respite in order to make a little money, amounting to the savings of an entire year scraped together penny by penny from the vital necessities—those inexpressible privations which make the avarice of the countryman as sordid and as greedy as that of mendicants—were all revealed in the trembling, callous hand which drew the money from the bottom of the pocket to expose it to chance.
— from The Triumph of Death by Gabriele D'Annunzio

And as the artist took Mrs. Davenant down to the dining–room, and sat next her at dinner, he had no opportunity of fraternising with Belinda during that meal; for the young lady was divided from him by the whole length of the table and, moreover, very much occupied by the exclusive attentions of two callow–looking officers from the nearest garrison–town, who were afflicted with extreme youth, and were painfully conscious of their degraded state, but tried notwithstanding to carry it off with a high hand, and affected the opinions of used–up fifty.
— from John Marchmont's Legacy, Volumes 1-3 by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

Do that much for your Adeline, who has never before asked you to make the smallest sacrifice.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac