‘He said I should object?’ asked Mr. Jorkins.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

I have seen it stated that no expert is quick enough to run over a dog; that a dog is always able to skip out of his way.
— from What Is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain

The works of Buonamico, then, finding much favour with the Pisans, he was charged by the Warden of the Works of the Campo Santo to make [Pg 146] four scenes in fresco, from the beginning of the world up to the construction of Noah's Ark, and round the scenes an ornamental border, wherein he made his own portrait from the life—namely, in a frieze, in the middle of which, and on the corners, are some heads, among which, as I have said, is seen his own, with a cap exactly like the one that is seen above.
— from Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 01 (of 10) Cimabue to Agnolo Gaddi by Giorgio Vasari

He had succeeded in spending but one evening in her company.
— from Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town Life by Sherwood Anderson

As to what Mr. Pickthank hath said, I say (avoiding terms, as that I am said to rail, and the like) that the prince of this town, with all the rabblement, his attendants, by this gentleman named, are more fit for a being in hell, than in this town and country:
— from The Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that which is to come Delivered under the similitude of a dream, by John Bunyan by John Bunyan

“You amaze me, Holmes,” said I. “Surely you are not as sure as you pretend to be of all those particulars which you gave.”
— from A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

How sound is she asleep!
— from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

When all were safely down they picked up the Scarecrow, whose body was quite flattened out, and patted his straw into shape again.
— from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

As the dun nightingale, daughter of Pandareus, sings in the early spring from her seat in shadiest covert hid, and with many a plaintive trill pours out the tale how by mishap she killed her own child Itylus, son of king Zethus, even so does my mind toss and turn in its uncertainty whether I ought to stay with my son here, and safeguard my substance, my bondsmen, and the greatness of my house, out of regard to public opinion and the memory of my late husband, or whether it is not now time for me to go with the best of these suitors who are wooing me and making me such magnificent presents.
— from The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original by Homer

Ambrosch was a far-seeing fellow; he soon realized that his oxen were too heavy for any work except breaking sod, and he succeeded in selling them to a newly arrived German.
— from My Antonia by Willa Cather

Slue Foot scowled: "I seen Hurley comin' out an' he says I should leave you fifteen men out of my crew, so I done it.
— from Connie Morgan in the Lumber Camps by James B. (James Beardsley) Hendryx

He spoke in such a gentle voice, and Mary thought it so considerate of him that he had not told her, and had forbidden Mrs. Dawes to tell—probably Jörgen Thiis too—that she did what she very seldom did, went up to him and kissed him.
— from Mary by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

"Evening, Bob," he said, in stricken accents "Just what I told her," said Mr Digson "What'll please you will be sure... "She'll be riding in her carriage and pair in six months" THE BEQUEST R. Robert Clarkson sat by his fire, smoking thoughtfully.
— from The Bequest Ship's Company, Part 6. by W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs

I believe that if I had had Stella I should have still suffered as much, or nearly as much."
— from Love of Brothers by Katharine Tynan

After she had succeeded in suppressing the Jesuits, she fancied she beheld in each monk of the order as assassin and a poisoner.—
— from International Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science, Vol. 1, No. 3, Oct. 1, 1850 by Various

But in spite of all her skill, in spite of all the art with which she managed to present her strange request, M. de Chandore had no sooner understood her project than he exclaimed,— “Never, never, never!”
— from Within an Inch of His Life by Emile Gaboriau

“O my love, my fickle lover— Where to find him shall I stray?”
— from Targum Or Metrical Translations From Thirty Languages And Dialects by George Borrow

He submitted, I suppose, to J. H. N.’s axiom, that if the Movement was to do anything it must become “respectable”; but it was against his nature.
— from Hurrell Froude: Memoranda and Comments by Louise Imogen Guiney

The dim lamp, that, like a star struggling with the thick gloom of a wintry cell, had shed its slender radiance over the brow of the Virgin Thecla, was gone.
— from Rookwood by William Harrison Ainsworth