Only at the end did my suspicions get the better of me, and you know how wide of the mark they then proved."
— from The Piazza Tales by Herman Melville

Everybody does me some harm, and nobody has a kind word for me.
— from Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Sus costumbres eran patriarcales; comía poco, bebía menos, y sus únicas calaveradas consistían en alguna merienda en los Alamillos, en días muy sonados, y 5 paseos diarios a un lugar llamado Mundogrande, donde a menudo eran desenterradas del fango de veinte siglos medallas romanas y pedazos de arquitrabe, extraños plintos de desconocida arquitectura y tal cual ánfora o cubicularia de inestimable precio.
— from Doña Perfecta by Benito Pérez Galdós

Thence home, and there I find letters from my brother, which tell me that yesterday when he wrote my mother did rattle in the throat so as they did expect every moment her death, which though I have a good while expected did much surprise me, yet was obliged to sup at Sir W. Pen’s and my wife, and there counterfeited some little mirth, but my heart was sad, and so home after supper and to bed, and much troubled in my sleep of my being crying by my mother’s bedside, laying my head over hers and crying, she almost dead and dying, and so waked, but what is strange, methought she had hair over her face, and not the same kind of face as my mother really hath, but yet did not consider that, but did weep over her as my mother, whose soul God have mercy of.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

When all other email fails try our Executive Director: Michael S. Hart
— from Divina Commedia di Dante: Inferno by Dante Alighieri

Each day Miss Sullivan went to the classes with me and spelled into my hand with infinite patience all that the teachers said.
— from The Story of My Life With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy by Helen Keller

He confesses in his diary: "I am living like a beast, though not entirely depraved; my studies are nearly all abandoned, and spiritually I am very low.
— from Tolstoy by Lilian Winstanley

"Just this doctor," replied Kidd in his heavy voice but civilly enough "Don Manuel Santiago gave Belcher the tip how Frisco could be trapped, and as me and him wanted to earn the reward, we fixed the matter up."
— from The Silver Bullet by Fergus Hume

I was fortunate enough during my stay in Rio Janeiro to witness several different public festivals.
— from A Woman's Journey Round the World From Vienna to Brazil, Chili, Tahiti, China, Hindostan, Persia and Asia Minor by Ida Pfeiffer

"Nothing else delights me so much as the works of nature."— L. Mur. cor.
— from The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown

Charles VI. of France, one of the most credulous princes of the day, whose court absolutely swarmed with alchymists, conjurers, astrologers, and quacks of every description, made several attempts to discover the philosopher’s stone, and thought he knew so much about it, that he determined to enlighten the world with a treatise; it is called the Royal Work of Charles VI. of France, and the Treasure of Philosophy .
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

I have temperament enough despite my size.
— from Melomaniacs by James Huneker