The Partridge earnestly begged him to spare his life, saying, “Pray, master, permit me to live and I will entice many Partridges to you in recompense for your mercy to me.”
— from Aesop's Fables Translated by George Fyler Townsend by Aesop

no precious secret deeply hidden lies, Resplendent shrines, devoid of relics, sacred stones, More empty, more profound than ye yourselves, O skies?
— from The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire

“Sire,” said Villefort, “the suddenness of this event must prove to your majesty that the issue is in the hands of Providence; what your majesty is pleased to attribute to me as profound perspicacity is simply owing to chance, and I have profited by that chance, like a good and devoted servant—that’s all.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

His easy bearing shows freedom without pride; his manners are lively but not boisterous; sympathy makes his glance softer and his expression more pleasing; the young girl, seeing him weep, is ready to mingle her tears with his.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Isálig ku ning ákung kabtángan nímu ug wà ku dinhi, I will entrust my property to you while I’m gone.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

Among his other presents was a model engine more perfect than you could ever have dreamed of.
— from The Railway Children by E. (Edith) Nesbit

She’s even more particular than you, and I’ll do as she tells me like a lamb!” said Nan, not one whit offended at the implied slight on her own powers; but Maud shook her head.
— from A Houseful of Girls by Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.

But you had not understood, and your conscious ignorance, grown conscious within the last couple of days, was even more pitiful than your unconscious ignorance when you answered that you couldn't go to church because it made your eyes bad.
— from Confessions of a Young Man by George Moore

It's very evident, Mr. Pedagog, that you're not acquainted with children.
— from The Inventions of the Idiot by John Kendrick Bangs

My knowledge of human nature is more extended, more profound than yours, but since you seem unwilling to avail yourself of my experience, it only remains for you to acquaint me with your determination.
— from Vashti; Or, Until Death Us Do Part by Augusta J. (Augusta Jane) Evans

Any effort to recall the names of all these friends would lead to the unavoidable omission of some; nevertheless, I must specially mention Mr. H. Takamine, Director of the Tokio Normal School; Dr. Seiken Takenaka; Mr. Tsunejiro Miyaoka; Mr. S. Tejima, Director of the Tokio Educational Museum; Professors Toyama, Yatabe, Kikuchi, Mitsukuri, Sasaki, and Kozima, and Mr. Ishikawa and others, of the University of Tokio; Mr. Isawa and Mr. Kodzu, Mr. Fukuzawa, the distinguished teacher and author; Mr. Kashiwagi, Mr. Kohitsu, and Mr. Masuda.
— from Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings by Edward Sylvester Morse

I wish to explain my plans to you.
— from The Casque's Lark; or, Victoria, the Mother of the Camps by Eugène Sue

It was a picture of Gordon's deadly white face with its trembling lower lip, as he stood bolt upright while his medals were being torn from his breast, and then said, in that voice which his father could never forget: "General, the time may come when it will be even more painful to you to remember all this than it has been to me to bear it."
— from The White Prophet, Volume 2 (of 2) by Caine, Hall, Sir

Therefore, when parents develop to their highest pitch the enthusiasms and abilities of childhood, when they foster family life and enrich it so that every member, particularly the younger ones, become active participants, and feel that they too have work to contribute to the general welfare, then and then only will the school by force of public sentiment revise its own standards.
— from The Library of Work and Play: Guide and Index by Cheshire Lowton Boone

And I do so want to explain my proverb to you, Miss Launa.
— from A Girl of the North: A Story of London and Canada by Susan Morrow Jones