Well, that floored me, and I let her go; and finally one day she said it was raining too hard to go out on foot, and she wanted me to lend her my carriage.
— from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

Mr. Joseph Chamberlain has said: “The true field for municipal activity is limited to those things
— from Garden Cities of To-Morrow Being the Second Edition of "To-Morrow: a Peaceful Path to Real Reform" by Howard, Ebenezer, Sir

He fanned my already intense love of knowledge into a flame, by assuring me that I was to be a useful man in the world.
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass

He had solicited the same favour of some other families, in which he hoped to take root, though he knew they were pre-engaged to different physicians; and resolving to make his first medical appearance in London with some eclat, he not only purchased an old chariot, which was new painted for the purpose, but likewise hired a footman, whom he clothed in laced livery, in order to distinguish himself from the common run of his brethren.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

On the present occasion when you and he have carefully observed the rising sun, when you have called his attention to the mountains and other objects visible from the same spot, after he has chattered freely about them, keep quiet for a few minutes as if lost in thought and then say, “I think the sun set over there last night; it rose here this morning.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

And herein I notice an instance of the short-sightedness of human desires, that oftentimes on moonlight nights, during my first mournful abode in London, my consolation was (if such it could be thought) to gaze from Oxford Street up every avenue in succession which pierces through the heart of Marylebone to the fields and the woods; for that , said I, travelling with my eyes up the long vistas which lay part in light and part in shade, “ that is the road to the North, and therefore to, and if I had the wings of a dove, that way I would fly for comfort.”
— from Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey

These conflicting doctrines are blended in an amusing manner on the certificates of the Order, where at the top we find the French motto and initials: Liberté Égalité Fraternité À∴ L∴ G∴ D∴ L'H∴ (i.e. à la gloire de l'Humanité) and below, for the benefit of English members, the initials of the British masonic device, that does not of course appear on the diplomas of the French Order, which, like the Grand Orient, has rejected the Great Architect: T∴ T∴
— from Secret Societies And Subversive Movements by Nesta Helen Webster

"I am not sure, but I think it was because his son, Laurie's father, married an Italian lady, a musician, which displeased the old man, who is very proud.
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

'The idea just came to me, it fascinated me, and I lied.
— from Seven Keys to Baldpate by Earl Derr Biggers

In a way I was sorry not to be going with the outfit, for then I might see some real action; but real action would be dangerous for me, and I liked working for the General
— from A Maid and a Million Men the candid confessions of Leona Canwick, censored indiscreetly by James G. Dunton by James G. (James Gerald) Dunton

I was rejoiced to find myself again in London.
— from Pelham — Complete by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron