but I am a poor Wiltshire lad—I ha’n’t a shirt in the world, that I can call my own, nor a rag of clothes, and please your ladyship, but what you see—I have no friend nor relation upon earth to help me out—I have had the fever and ague these six months, and spent all I had in the world upon doctors, and to keep soul and body together; and, saving your ladyship’s good presence, I han’t broke bread these four and twenty hours.’
— from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. (Tobias) Smollett

Mesaulius brought them their bread; the swineherd had brought this man on his own account from among the Taphians during his master's absence, and had paid for him with his own money without saying anything either to his mistress or Laertes.
— from The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original by Homer

I am as yet young, and am not strong enough to hold my own if any man attacks me.
— from The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original by Homer

In short, I conceive that great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of the value of things, and by their giving too much for their whistles .
— from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

Then the blessed Lupus and all the rest, greatly troubled, awakened their elder, that he might oppose the raging elements.
— from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England by Bede, the Venerable, Saint

And this order of things is evidently necessary; evidently the happy man only feels at ease because the unhappy bear their burdens in silence, and without that silence happiness would be impossible.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

But all these were secret dreams, of which Kitty did not talk either to her mother or to Varenka.
— from Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

While he spoke, Maria was looking apprehensively round at Edmund in full expectation that he must oppose such an enlargement of the plan as this: so contrary to all their first protestations; but Edmund said nothing.
— from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

These two were lucky enough to have more opportunities.
— from The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by James H. (James Henderson) Blount

It is to the Commissioners a most refreshing fact that one experiment they have made of a charity ball has been attended with complete success; for a lesson in mathematics is found to combine with a lesson in dancing.
— from The Comic Almanack, Volume 2 (of 2) An Ephemeris in Jest and Earnest, Containing Merry Tales, Humerous Poetry, Quips, and Oddities by Gilbert Abbott À Beckett

And these calamities were the more terrifying, as they appeared to be without remedy, for the Gloucester had already spent a month in her endeavours to fetch the bay, and she was now no farther advanced than at the first moment she made the island; on the contrary, the people on board her had worn out all their hopes of ever succeeding in it by the many experiments they had made of its difficulty.
— from Anson's Voyage Round the World The Text Reduced by Richard Walter

As nearly as any mortal can be stationary, Pa was; but in the nature of things, passing events touched him more or less sharply in their progress.
— from Janet of the Dunes by Harriet T. (Harriet Theresa) Comstock

I expect to have my old housekeeper home again in a week or two.
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 5 The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb, 1796-1820 by Charles Lamb

Learning that he was a painter they tried to approach him, to show him too that they were the real thing; but he looked at them, across the big room, as if they were miles away: they were a compendium of everything that he most objected to in the social system of his country.
— from The Real Thing and Other Tales by Henry James

But the secret order of Molly Maguires was a terror in the coal regions in those days; the torch, the pistol, and the knife were the instruments with which it carried out its desperate decrees, and Tom was absolutely afraid to whisper a word of what he knew, even to his mother or to Bennie.
— from The Blind Brother: A Story of the Pennsylvania Coal Mines by Homer Greene

All that law can do is to endeavor to place a man in such an environment that his moral or religious nature may be aroused and that his desire or ambition be encouraged.
— from Socialism and American ideals by William Starr Myers

Lovel escaped to his manor of Minster Lovel, in Oxfordshire, and lurked in a secret chamber, where he was starved to death in hiding.
— from A History of England Eleventh Edition by Charles Oman