Religion remains; and here, at least, it may be thought, is an agency that may be relied on for lifting men's eyes and minds above the dust at their feet.
— from Considerations on Representative Government by John Stuart Mill

As Tom perceived, an' please your honour, that he gained ground, and that all he had said upon the subject of sausages was kindly taken, he went on to help her a little in making them.—First, by taking hold of the ring of the sausage whilst she stroked the forced meat down with her hand—then by cutting the strings into proper lengths, and holding them in his hand, whilst she took them out one by one—then, by putting them across her mouth, that she might take them out as she wanted them—and so on from little to more, till at last he adventured to tie the sausage himself, whilst she held the snout.—
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

They will begin by sending out into the country all the 541 inhabitants of the city who are more than ten years old, and will take possession of their children, who will be unaffected by the habits of their parents; these they will train in their own habits and laws, I mean in the laws which we have given them: and in this way the State and constitution of which we were speaking will soonest and most easily attain happiness, and the nation which has such a constitution will gain most.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

Yet secret go; for numerous are my foes, And here at least I may in peace repose."
— from The Odyssey by Homer

Christian asceticism, on the other hand, discrediting the slightest touch of sense, has from time to time provoked into strong emphasis the contrast or antagonism to itself, of the artistic life, with its inevitable sensuousness.—I did but taste a little honey with the end of the rod that was in mine hand, and lo, I must die!—It has sometimes seemed hard to pursue that life without something of conscious disavowal of a spiritual world; and this imparts to genuine artistic interests a kind of intoxication.
— from The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry by Walter Pater

I had a lump in my throat.
— from Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

To this woman, with her sound, practical intelligence, the disorderly surroundings with petty cares and sordid anxieties in which we were living now were an agony: I saw that and could not sleep at night; my brain worked feverishly and I had a lump in my throat.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Well, he came here and at once bought a house and land in Moukhzyink.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

At last the saint’s patience was worn out, and he said, ‘I will not live here any longer; I much wished it, but troubled with this marine molestation, it is not in my power.
— from British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes

And he earnestly seized my hand, and looked into my face with such imploring eagerness that my heart bled for him,
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

Punches differ from sherbets only in having a little Italian meringue added to them just before serving.
— from The Century Cook Book by Mary Ronald

When I talked to Colonel Pope about it afterwards he said the Germans were a mean lot of beggars: "Why," said he most indignantly, "they came and had a look into my trenches.
— from Five Months at Anzac A Narrative of Personal Experiences of the Officer Commanding the 4th Field Ambulance, Australian Imperial Force by Joseph Lievesley Beeston

After a few moments, she raised her head, and, looking into Maxence’s eyes with a gaze that made him quiver like the shock of an electric battery, “Doubtless,” she said, in a tone of indifference somewhat forced, “you think you have in me a strange neighbor.
— from Other People's Money by Emile Gaboriau

“I have a locker in Milpitas,” she said.
— from Makers by Cory Doctorow

This Dorothy was glad enough to do, and she walked away, feeling that Kathleen had taught her a lesson in making allowance for the unconsciousness of a child's wrongdoing.
— from The Dorrance Domain by Carolyn Wells

The result really being that I was completely convinced that I was a person of feeble and inferior capacity as regarded all that was worth doing or knowing in life, though Heaven knows my very delicate health and long illnesses might of themselves have excused all my failings.
— from Memoirs by Charles Godfrey Leland

When I found him at leisure, I made myself known to him, and he sat down on the brickwork of the furnace, and had a good unburdening of talk; for he had not seen any one from the United States for three months.
— from To Cuba and Back by Richard Henry Dana

And it seems to me that, among learned men themselves, among impartial philosophers, this method would do great harm; at least, it may be supposed that the number of men devoid of sense in the scientific world would be considerably increased.
— from Protestantism and Catholicity compared in their effects on the civilization of Europe by Jaime Luciano Balmes

As the thought passed my mind the man who was batting cut a ball hard and low in my direction.
— from Parkhurst Boys, and Other Stories of School Life by Talbot Baines Reed