"I wish you'd keep your fingers out of my eye," said the aerial voice, in a tone of savage expostulation.
— from The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

Thought and feeling are very intimately connected, few of our mental perceptions, particularly when they first dawn upon us, being unaccompanied by some feeling.
— from The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed

My wrist was not supple enough, nor my arm sufficiently firm to retain the foil, whenever he chose to make it fly out of my hand.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

But as soon as I glance at the audience, sitting around me in an amphitheatre, and utter the stereotyped "In our last lecture we ended with...." and the sentences fly out of my soul in a long line—then it is full steam ahead.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

One night, returning home, much intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

O soule, lurkinge in this wo, unneste, 305 Flee forth out of myn herte, and lat it breste, And folwe alwey Criseyde, thy lady dere; Thy righte place is now no lenger here!
— from Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer

The simplicity and familiarity of our manners with each other proved how far dependence was reciprocal.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

With this, and talking and laughing at the folly of our masters in the management of things at this day, we got home by noon, where all well, and then to dinner, and after dinner both of us laid down upon the couch and chairs and to sleep, which I did for an hour or two, and then to the office, where I am sorry to hear that Sir J. Minnes is likely to die this night, or to-morrow, I forgot to set down that we met this morning upon the road with Mrs. Williams going down to my Lord Bruncker; we bowed without speaking one to another, but I am ashamed at the folly of the man to have her down at this serious busy time, when the town and country is full of people and full of censure, and against him particularly.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

And as this piece of yours aims at nothing more than to destroy the authority and influence which books of chivalry have in the world and with the public, there is no need for you to go a-begging for aphorisms from philosophers, precepts from Holy Scripture, fables from poets, speeches from orators, or miracles from saints; but merely to take care that your style and diction run musically, pleasantly, and plainly, with clear, proper, and well-placed words, setting forth your purpose to the best of your power, and putting your ideas intelligibly, without confusion or obscurity.
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

With seeming modesty he spoke of the feats of other men, yet none the less it was Ralph they saw, poised like a bird at incredible heights, looping the loop, fearless, splendid—beating the air with strong wings.
— from The Tin Soldier by Temple Bailey

Put into a condensed form, one of Mr. Spencer's grand objections to the belief in special creations of organized
— from Creation or Evolution? A Philosophical Inquiry by George Ticknor Curtis

Oh lud, ma'am, I'm frightened out of my wits!
— from Inkle and Yarico: An opera, in three acts by George Colman

“The war alludes to the war now existing between America and Mexico, and the money to be made is to be plundered at sea, from our own merchant vessels.
— from Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXX, No. 3, March 1847 by Various

Never to molest the young man in any way—never to return to England, but to fix my abode in some continental State—and never to reveal the fact of our marriage!
— from The Mysteries of London, v. 4/4 by George W. M. (George William MacArthur) Reynolds

I then ordered all furnishings out of my chamber, and 364 all the servants except Margaret out of the house, to the end that no sight or sound should draw my attention or my thoughts from my purpose.
— from The Blue Wall A Story of Strangeness and Struggle by Richard Washburn Child

We are too apt to pronounce upon possibilities from our own measure of knowledge, or of capacity.
— from A Treatise on the Art of Dancing by Giovanni-Andrea Gallini

There was, however, an act of bounty, which might be of infinite service to the troops, and which he should take a future opportunity of moving.
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 1 (of 16) by United States. Congress

When we saw them so shy that they would not come near us, our men began to range over the island, if it was such (for we never surrounded it), to search for cattle, and for any of the Indian plantations, for fruits or plants; but they soon found, to their cost, that they were to use more caution than that came to, and that they were to discover perfectly every bush and every tree before they ventured abroad in the country; for about fourteen of our men going farther than the rest, into a part of the country which seemed to be planted, as they thought, for it did but seem so, only I think it was overgrown with canes, such as we make our cane chairs with—I say, venturing too far, they were suddenly attacked with a shower of arrows from almost every side of them, as they thought, out of the tops of the trees.
— from The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton by Daniel Defoe