You will say she loves him passionately: who prevents her, then, from serenading at his doors, singing her amorous ditty, putting garlands on his statues, and wrestling and boxing with her rivals in his affections?
— from Plutarch's Morals by Plutarch

Yet, hast thou food which never satiates, now,— The restless, ruddy gold hast thou, That runs, quicksilver-like, one's fingers through,— A game whose winnings no man ever knew,— A maid that, even from my breast, Beckons my neighbor with her wanton glances, And Honor's godlike zest, The meteor that a moment dances,— Show me the fruits that, ere they're gathered, rot, And trees that daily with new leafage clothe them!
— from Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The nights seemed lengthened into days; the hopes, the fears that filled my mind are indescribable.
— from The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years by Ida Husted Harper

The starboard watch hauled aft the sheet, and the ship tore through the water like a mad horse, quivering and shaking at every joint, and dashing from its head the foam, which flew off at every blow, yards and yards to leeward.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

He went out of the town, hoping to find some tree or haystack in the fields which would afford him shelter.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

"My strength did not fail me," said the Tailor; "do you imagine that that was a hard task for one who has slain seven at one blow?
— from Grimm's Fairy Stories by Wilhelm Grimm

None of the village people would come to the house as servants; Auntie Dasha had to hire them from a distance.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

After his time few philosophers of any note in Arabia are heard of as devoting themselves to the study of alchymy; but it began shortly afterwards to attract greater attention in Europe.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

He then folded it up with great care, pressed it smooth between his two hands, put it in his pocket, and seemed to put my aunt away with it.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

And although it is in a German manner, for that style it has so great grace and proportion that it holds the first place among the works of those times, above all because its composition of figures great and small, and of angels and prophets in half-relief round the Madonna, is very well executed.
— from Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 01 (of 10) Cimabue to Agnolo Gaddi by Giorgio Vasari

Throughout the winter Lannes had been a prey to ill-health and resentment at his chief's real or fancied injustice: but the heats of summer re-awakened his thirst for glory and restored him to his wonted vigour.
— from The Life of Napoleon I (Volume 2 of 2) by J. Holland (John Holland) Rose

Then the mother, seizing on the idea that her daughter is willing to do anything, urges her for this and that reason to see her employer, emphasizing the idea that, had the father lived, all 402 their present sorrow would not exist.
— from Dramatic Technique by George Pierce Baker

Here the Kentucky chap became so deeply affected that he was compelled to smell a cork which he took from his vest pocket, and says he,— "Kentucky raised a great deal of rye before the breaking out of this here fatal war with the Southern Confederacy, with whom Kentucky is connected by marriage; she raised it by the bottle; in which form it becomes, as it were, the crowning glory of agriculture.
— from The Orpheus C. Kerr Papers, Series 3 by R. H. (Robert Henry) Newell

Just as the author has found a means of passing from occult methods to methods that are patent, so it is necessary for the husband to justify the sudden change in his tactics; for in marriage, as in literature, art consists entirely in the gracefulness of the transitions.
— from Analytical Studies by Honoré de Balzac

It is a frank, honest, manly face that looks into the other end of our observation telescope when we sweep the horizon to find something higher and better than the rank and file of humanity.
— from Threads of Grey and Gold by Myrtle Reed

She happened to have a talent for cooking, and without her the family would have starved.
— from The Avalanche: A Mystery Story by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

"I trust I have, at least, the humility to feel that the more I read the more
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 07, April 1868 to September, 1868 by Various

After a pause, she said in the tone rather of defeat than resentment, “I thought you did not intend him to frequent the house again.”
— from Daniel Deronda by George Eliot

And now I'll go hurry tea, for yo'll be needing it, Molly!'
— from Sylvia's Lovers — Volume 3 by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

So they disputed about it for a long time whether he could be an officer here or not, and at last I said, 'I can find a handle to fit that hoe.
— from Black Forest Village Stories by Berthold Auerbach