But Arthur is not naturally a peevish or irritable man; so far from it, that there was something almost ludicrous in the incongruity of this adventitious fretfulness and nervous irritability, rather calculated to excite laughter than anger, if it were not for the intensely painful considerations attendant upon those symptoms of a disordered frame, and his temper gradually improved as his bodily health was restored, which was much sooner than would have been the case but for my strenuous exertions; for there was still one thing about him that I did not give up in despair, and one effort for his preservation that I would not remit.
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

The old man followed the cart with his gaze until it disappeared in the distance and then remained for some time afterward with his head bowed, deep in thought.
— from The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal

One lady, who had striven in vain during several days, gave up in despair all attempts to see him at his own house, but ordered her coachman to keep a strict watch whenever she was out in her carriage, and if he saw Mr. Law coming, to drive against a post and upset her.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

From every corner, as you glance about you in these dark retreats, some figure crawls half-awakened, as if the judgment-hour were near at hand, and every obscene grave were giving up its dead.
— from American Notes by Charles Dickens

“Where Steelkilt now is, gentlemen, none know; but upon the island of Nantucket, the widow of Radney still turns to the sea which refuses to give up its dead; still in dreams sees the awful white whale that destroyed him.
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville

By “plenty” I mean that the babies grew up in an environment which met their needs, just as young fawns might grow up in dewy forest glades and brook-fed meadows.
— from Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Nothing is stranger than that a work of such force and genius, unique in Danish letters, should have been forgotten for three hundred years, and have survived only in an epitome and in exceedingly few manuscripts.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

The difference between the great celebrities and the unknown nobodies is this, the former failed and went at it again, the latter gave up in despair.
— 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.

If so, then why defend some from the others, why not destroy them all?” “Some error exists here which I do not see just now some fallacy in the theory to invalidate the practise, for in Spain, the mother country, this corps is displaying, and has ever displayed, great usefulness.” “I don’t doubt it.
— from The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal

This accusation gave Abelard such fears, and was managed with such inveterate malice by his enemies, and with such great unfairness, in drawing consequences he never thought of, that, imagining he had friends at Rome who would protect his innocence, he made an appeal to the Pope.
— from Letters of Abelard and Heloise To which is prefix'd a particular account of their lives, amours, and misfortunes by Héloïse

We shall know when the trumpet of the Archangel sounds the Last Réveillé, and the grave gives up its dead, and the Sea spews forth its victims, and the secrets of that deeper abyss, the human heart, are revealed in the sheer, awful Light that streams from the Throne of God.
— from That Which Hath Wings: A Novel of the Day by Richard Dehan

Then the sea began to give up its dead.
— from The Mystery of the Sea by Bram Stoker

His discourse was so rich and varied that Peddie of Muirtown on original sin was not to be compared with it in breadth of treatment, and Mrs. Macfadyen confessed frankly that she gave up in despair before the preacher had fairly entered on his second hour.
— from Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush by Ian Maclaren

At last I gave up in despair.
— from Married Life; Its Shadows and Sunshine by T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur

I was almost giving up in despair.
— from The Old Helmet, Volume II by Susan Warner

Thus he pitted himself against the Emperor, unmindful that even in Germany the hands of the political clock were moving forward and feudalism slowly giving up its dominion.
— from Europe in the Middle Ages by Ierne L. (Ierne Lifford) Plunket

Annie looked anxious and distressed, but as Rodolphus walked rapidly on, she was entirely helpless, and could do nothing but sit still, though she urged Rodolphus to stop, again and again, until at last, finding that it did no good, she gave up in despair, and resigned herself to her fate.
— from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXIII.—April, 1852.—Vol. IV. None by Various

"I am so sorry," he said, getting up in dismay after his rapid slide.
— from Barbara in Brittany by E. A. Gillie

Grossi , Uomini Illustri di Urbino .
— from Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, Volume 3 (of 3) Illustrating the Arms, Arts, and Literature of Italy, from 1440 To 1630 by James Dennistoun