Si quis morosus Cato, tetricusque Senator, Hunc etiam librum forte videre velit, Sive magistratus, tum te reverenter habeto; Sed nullus; muscas non capiunt Aquilae.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

But paler and paler grew Martha by his side, till, like a corpse in its burial-clothes, she sank down at the feet of her early lover; for, after many trials firmly borne, her heart could endure the weight of its desolate agony no longer.
— from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne

There she beheld her Evelyn lying fever-stricken and motionless.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

In her excitement Leila felt that if there had been time, if it hadn't been impossible, she couldn't have helped crying because she was an only child, and no brother had ever said “Twig?” to her; no sister would ever say, as Meg said to Jose that moment, “I've never known your hair go up more successfully than it has to-night!”
— from The Garden Party, and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

‘I have ever looked forward to the time that should enable thee to mix among the gayest and prettiest, and take thy station with the best.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

“If this ‘Explanation’ gets into anybody’s hands, and they have patience to read it through, they may consider me a madman, or a schoolboy, or, more likely, a man condemned to die, who thought it only natural to conclude that all men, excepting himself, esteem life far too lightly, live it far too carelessly and lazily, and are, therefore, one and all, unworthy of it.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

la poca seriedad y seguridad que hay en la forma de pago.
— from Entretiens / Interviews / Entrevistas by Marie Lebert

They arrived at Perpignan soon after sunset, where St. Aubert found, as he had expected, letters from M. Quesnel, the contents of which so evidently and grievously affected him, that Emily was alarmed, and pressed him, as far as her delicacy would permit, to disclose the occasion of his concern; but he answered her only by tears, and immediately began to talk on other topics.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

Her swift, unexpected action, her earnest little face, the simple-hearted naïveté, the unexpected feeling betrayed by the tears that welled in her invariably laughter-loving eyes, were such a surprise that every one stood before her as though electrified by her expression, her rapid, fiery words and gestures.
— from White Nights and Other Stories The Novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Volume X by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

At Sergey Ivanovitch’s little pills, everyone laughed; Turovtsin in especial roared loudly and jovially, glad at last to have found something to laugh at, all he ever looked for in listening to conversation.
— from Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

And that was why Julian, after drinking to the toast which he had given a moment before, remained on his feet with his glass still in his hand, and with his eyes looking from picture to picture as though he had never seen one of them previously in his life.
— from The Other World by Frank Frankfort Moore

“She has eyes like Fate, and the face of Motherhood Incarnate.
— from Beatrice by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

Not a religious man by any means, he yet possessed that religion of nature which pervades the soul of anyone who has ever lived for long face to face with grandeurs and solitudes where human passions have no entrance.
— from Cecil Rhodes, Man and Empire-Maker by Radziwill, Catherine, Princess

Coningsby could not make out why Madame Colonna was always intimating to him that the Princess Lucretia took such great interest in his existence, looked forward with such gratification to his society, remembered with so much pleasure the past, anticipated so much happiness from the future.
— from Coningsby; Or, The New Generation by Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield

He laughed at her earnest little face.
— from Her Lord and Master by Martha Morton

She felt her heart go out with a rush to this big man she had never seen, and she found herself eagerly looking forward to their meeting.
— from The Promise A Tale of the Great Northwest by James B. (James Beardsley) Hendryx

He had already reckoned the extent of his enormous losses, for he would have to buy back at high prices bonds he had sold at low, and he would have to reverse the process in stocks.
— from The Golden Flood by Edwin Lefevre

He sits straining his eyes towards the horizon, eagerly longing for some sign of the city to come in sight.
— from Diary of a Pilgrimage by Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome

What effect, then, must they have produced upon a youngster of scarce twenty, who (for the truth must be told) had eaten little for the two last days, save the scarcely ripe fruit which chance afforded him an opportunity of plucking, and a very moderate portion of barley bread?
— from Quentin Durward by Walter Scott

DEMONSTRATION AT THE TOWN HALL—A TELEGRAM FROM HIS EMPLOYER LEAVING FOR EUROPE H2 anchor THE ADVENTURES OF A BOY REPORTER.
— from The Adventures of a Boy Reporter by Harry Steele Morrison