It was surely that I might fulfil my destiny, which is now drawing to a close.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

"If you want to divorce him, he's quite willing to do whatever is necessary to make it possible."
— from The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham

There would be nothing amusing in the saying, "It serves you right, George Dandin," were it not for the comic overtones that take up and re-echo it.
— from Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic by Henri Bergson

To men whose lives are thus ordered, is there no work remaining to be done which is necessary and fitting, but shall each one of them live fattening like a beast?
— from Laws by Plato

Sa kawad-un mangustiyáda giyud ta arun mabúhì, Because of our poverty we must do whatever is necessary to make ends meet.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

He was, indeed, the Custom-House in himself; or, at all events, the mainspring that kept its variously revolving wheels in motion; for, in an institution like this, where its officers are appointed to subserve their own profit and convenience, and seldom with a leading reference to their fitness for the duty to be performed, they must perforce seek elsewhere the dexterity which is not in them.
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The night then was fixed, with all possible respect to the eagerness of his impatience, and in the mean time Mrs. Cole had omitted no instructions, nor even neglected any preparation, that might enable me to come off with honour, in regard to the appearance of my virginity, except that, favoured as I was by nature with all the narrowness of stricture in that part requisite to conduct my designs, I had no occasion to borrow those auxiliaries of art that create a momentary one, easily discovered by the test of a warm bath; and as to the usual sanguinary symptoms of defloration, which, if not always, are generally attendants on it, Mrs. Cole had made me the mistress of an invention of her own, which could hardly miss its effect, and of which more in its place.
— from Memoirs of Fanny Hill A New and Genuine Edition from the Original Text (London, 1749) by John Cleland

The old man took this case and gazed at it for some time without opening it, with that air of enjoyment, rapture, and wrath, with which a poor hungry fellow beholds an admirable dinner which is not for him, pass under his very nose.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

And what excuse did he make for not joining us?' 'Oh, he merely said he thought he would have nothing to do with it.' 'Now, what do you imagine his object was in pumping you if he had no intention of taking an interest in the mine?' 'I'm sure I don't know.
— from A Woman Intervenes by Robert Barr

And it increased in intensity when the striped beast, with nervously flicking tail, leaped past its keeper and into the street, where it crouched, not knowing what to do with its newly found freedom.
— from Frank Merriwell's Reward by Burt L. Standish

It would be so awkward to come down with it now; though the sight of Dick with mumps, for instance, would repay me for a good deal.
— from Set in Silver by A. M. (Alice Muriel) Williamson

The Captain contemplates these preliminaries with astonishment, and with some displeasure, which is not allayed when, Patiomkin, hardly condescending to look at his visitor, of whom he nevertheless takes stock with the corner of his one eye, says gruffly].
— from Great Catherine (Whom Glory Still Adores) by Bernard Shaw

de world is not wide to de sailor.
— from Wild Life in the Land of the Giants: A Tale of Two Brothers by Gordon Stables

"No, ma'am, for there is a load of good wood at your door, which is now being sawed for your benefit."
— from May Brooke by Anna Hanson Dorsey

I quote this for your consideration, observing that the less that is said about any constitutional difficulty, the better: and that it will be desirable for Congress to do what is necessary, in silence.
— from Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 4 by Thomas Jefferson

Yet there may be something left behind, in the place where it lived and was broken and died, which is not wholly bad, though there be little good in this earth where there is no heart.
— from The Children of the King: A Tale of Southern Italy by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford

He had a son in the Commissariat department, who is no doubt in possession of all his father knew concerning Wolfe.
— from Notes and Queries, Vol. V, Number 130, April 24, 1852 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by Various