Anton’s a good man, and I loved my children and always believed they would turn out well.
— from My Antonia by Willa Cather

He’s a good man, and I like him.
— from Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

You know how the mass, especially its middle stratum, believe in intellectuality, in a university education, in gentlemanly manners, and in literary language.
— from The Duel and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

You promised me that you would give me anything I like—” “Yes!
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

“I lost you,” he said, seizing her little hand, “and I was at the mercy of any flirt who chose to give me an inviting look.
— from Sister Carrie: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser

It was among them that the Builder had been smitten, and that the works of the spiritual temple had been suspended; and so, losing at each successive stage of their decline, more and more of the true knowledge of God and of the pure religion which had originally been imparted by Noah, they finally arrived at gross materialism and idolatry, losing all sight of the divine existence.
— from The Symbolism of Freemasonry Illustrating and Explaining Its Science and Philosophy, Its Legends, Myths and Symbols by Albert Gallatin Mackey

For whatsoever is gotten with guile melts away in like fashion as it is sought, and no fruits are long-lasting that have been won by treachery and crime.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

Moreover, monseigneur the grand master, as I lately wrote to you, pray as quickly as possible disband my arriere ban together with the free lances, and do every possible thing for the mass of poor folks; appoint well-to-do men as leaders in every bailiwick and district.
— from Charles the Bold, Last Duke of Burgundy, 1433-1477 by Ruth Putnam

At last all was over--this closing episode of our war in the Crimea; and as we drove from the crowded park to get the train for Brighton--the honeymoon was not yet finished--I had forgotten all about Estelle and her Plunger; and I thanked God in my heart that I was not lying where so many lay in the land we had left, and for the tender and true-hearted wife He had given me, as I laughingly hung round her pretty neck the black-iron order of valour--the Victoria Cross.
— from Under the Red Dragon: A Novel by James Grant

His power in the delineation of character was shown in the principal personage of his story, Harvey Birch, on whom, though he has chosen to employ him in the ignoble office of a spy, and endowed him with the qualities necessary to his profession,--extreme circumspection, fertility in stratagem, and the art of concealing his real character--qualities which, in conjunction with selfishness and greediness, make the scoundrel, he has bestowed the virtues of generosity, magnanimity, an intense love of country, a fidelity not to be corrupted, and a disinterestedness beyond temptation.
— from Precaution: A Novel by James Fenimore Cooper