Only about three per cent of the power of the coal that enters the furnace ever diffuses itself from your electric bulb as light—the other ninety-seven per cent is wasted.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by J. Berg (Joseph Berg) Esenwein

“No!” replied one, in affected surprise; “I can tell you where to find every duchess in France: you have only to go to Mr. Law’s; you will see them every one in his ante-chamber.”
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

“Every day I find you more astonishing and strange.
— from Young Earnest: The Romance of a Bad Start in Life by Gilbert Cannan

'Eighty days in finding your way here?
— from The Last Entry by William Clark Russell

Get to be a great singer, and go about the country singing to make men like me good, you can do it, only don't let them fall in love with you, they do that too just the way I did, but don't let 'em do it for you are mine.
— from The Eagle's Heart by Hamlin Garland

"If you are not able to compel politeness from your brother and others I feel sure that it is your own fault, and there is no use in someone else demanding it for you.
— from The Girl Scout's Triumph; or, Rosanna's Sacrifice by Katherine Keene Galt

I owe you that courtesy, even did I fear you, for having assisted me in the desert.
— from Daughters of Destiny by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

" 020:004 Then said Jonathan to David, "Whatever your soul desires, I will even do it for you.
— from The World English Bible (WEB): 1 Samuel by Anonymous

It was a more sudden explosion, destroying about the same number in two years (in a population increased between a third and a half) that the epidemic a generation earlier did in four years.
— from A History of Epidemics in Britain, Volume 2 (of 2) From the Extinction of Plague to the Present Time by Charles Creighton

She was made Mother Superior because those who helped form the institution knew that no one else could so well fill the place, especially during its first years.
— from The House of Martha by Frank Richard Stockton