But Master Billy could not get Mr. Freeland to see matters precisely as he did; nor could he get Master Thomas so excited as he was himself.
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass

Good-nature is the very air of a good mind, the sign of a large and generous soul, and the peculiar soil in which virtue flourishes.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

No knowledge and unbounded conceit—that's what the German meant to say about the Russian schoolboy.”
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

All this morning at home vexing about the delay of my painters, and about four in the afternoon my wife and I by water to Captain Lambert’s, where we took great pleasure in their turret-garden, and seeing the fine needle-works of his wife, the best I ever saw in my life, and afterwards had a very handsome treat and good musique that she made upon the harpsicon, and with a great deal of pleasure staid till 8 at night, and so home again, there being a little pretty witty child that is kept in their house that would not let us go without her, and so fell a-crying by the water-side.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

I will show you I have got more good manners than some folks.”
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

He was pleased, in much mercy, to give me to see, and in some measure to understand, the great and awful scene of the judgment-day, that 'no unclean person, no unholy thing, can enter into the kingdom of God,' Eph.
— from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African Written By Himself by Olaudah Equiano

Grimaud made the sign yes.
— from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

These are the two sorts of revenue of which the owners have generally most to spare.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Good madam!—— [ Trumpets sound.
— from Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare

Give me the Speaking-Trumpet that I may call Silence.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 404, June, 1849 by Various

No cook shall grow rich on my gross and foolish greediness; he shall not poison me with fish which cost its weight in gold, my table shall not be decked with fetid splendour or putrid flesh from far-off lands.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

When I set out for the cemetery grandmother made the sign of the cross over me and kissed me.
— from In the World by Maksim Gorky

It ended by agreeing, that I should write to Gouverneur Morris to suspend payment generally till further orders.
— from The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 9 (of 9) Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private by Thomas Jefferson

If not, give me the smallest additional number with which you can."
— from The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Volume 2 by Jefferson Davis

His I received for this reason,—all other geological writers whose works I had examined were engaged in the maintenance of some theory or other, and always gathering materials to support it.
— from Modern Painters, Volume 4 (of 5) by John Ruskin

It goes over the old ground in very much the old way, and tells some of the old stories, and gives much the same old advice.
— from British Quarterly Review, American Edition, Vol. LIII January and April, 1871 by Various

Loved, nay adored, as I was, by my people, my mastery might have placed me upon the pinnacle of happiness, had I not been blinded by an unfortunate passion for a person who completely governed me, though she never could be my wife.
— from Specimens of German Romance; Vol. II. Master Flea by E. T. A. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus) Hoffmann