There are, no doubt, authenticated instances of gentlemen having given up ladies and ladies having given up gentlemen to meritorious rivals, under circumstances of great high-mindedness; but is it quite established that the majority of such ladies and gentlemen have not made a virtue of necessity, and nobly resigned what was beyond their reach; as a private soldier might register a vow never to accept the order of the Garter, or a poor curate of great piety and learning, but of no family—save a very large family of children—might renounce a bishopric?
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

He clearly means by it no more and no less than the fundamental principle of political association, the basis of the unity which enables us, in the State, to realise political liberty by giving up lawlessness and license.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

But since they were grown up, Laura and Laurie on their prowls sometimes walked through.
— from The Garden Party, and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

He grew up like a little wild beast among them.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Then the vision ceased, she was untroubled, time went on grey, uncoloured, like a long journey where she sat unconscious as the landscape unrolled beside her.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

They would be surprised to learn that many a wife would gladly give up luxuries and live on bread and water, if she could only have her husband's sympathy in her aspirations, his help and encouragement in the unfolding of her stifled talents.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

She cried till her heart felt like a clenched fist within her, and then, with her passion exhausted, she got up like a little, cold, rumpled ghost and pattered out to the hall in her silk-stockinged feet, and picked up Hickory Dock with his wilted pink rose and brought him in and put him back on her desk.
— from The Sick-a-Bed Lady And Also Hickory Dock, The Very Tired Girl, The Happy-Day, Something That Happened in October, The Amateur Lover, Heart of The City, The Pink Sash, Woman's Only Business by Eleanor Hallowell Abbott

Even the Word of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, the Son of Man who is in heaven; and who, because He is in heaven, both God and man, can and will give us light and life, now and for ever. page 129 p. 129
— from Westminster Sermons with a Preface by Charles Kingsley

One can imagine that some automatic tendency in biology might work for giving us longer and longer noses.
— from Orthodoxy by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

Years passed, during which the boy grew up like a little Arab in the Englishman's house, while his mother devoted herself more and more to the exercises of her religion, and his father, without failing in affectionate attention to either of them, seemed to bury his love for both too deep in his heart and to seal it with a seal, although the Egyptian nurse was sometimes startled late at night by seeing the Consul-General coming noiselessly into her room before going to his own, to see if it was well with his child.
— from The White Prophet, Volume 1 (of 2) by Caine, Hall, Sir

He has not only given us life and liberty, but He has furnished us liberally with all we can possibly want for time and eternity.
— from Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy, Volume II by Charles Henry Mackintosh

o la e, She ax me follow to her grave, U li a li o la e. I take her hand, ’twas cold as death, So cold I hardly draw my breff, She saw my tear in sorrow flow, And said, Farewell, my dearest, Joe, U li a li
— from Beadle's Dime Song Book No. 3 A Collection of New and Popular Comic and Sentimental Songs. by Various

If, in the years of the future, they are established in government under law and liberty, who will regret our perils and sacrifices?
— from William Jennings Bryan: A Concise But Complete Story of His Life and Services by Harvey Ellsworth Newbranch