Do you understand, I am dying, dying.”
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

The Angel of Music played a part in all Daddy Daae's tales; and he maintained that every great musician, every great artist received a visit from the Angel at least once in his life.
— from The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

" "Your sacred life is a daily demonstration of the truth uttered by Christ: 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.'"
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

King Louis and Mayor Petion have already had an interview on that business of the Twentieth; an interview and dialogue, distinguished by frankness on both sides; ending on King Louis's side with the words, "Taisez-vous, Hold your peace.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

“And what year is it, Anno Domini, do you know?”
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“Importuna” is “a plaguy baggage;” “adulterium” is rendered “her pranks;” “ambages” becomes either “a long rabble of words,” “a long-winded detail,” or “a tale of a tub;” “miserabile carmen” is “a dismal ditty;” “increpare hos” is “to rattle these blades;” “penetralia” means “the parlour;” while “accingere,” more literally than elegantly, is translated “buckle to.”
— from The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII by Ovid

Whenever, in short, there is a definite damage, or a definite risk of damage, either to an individual or to the public, the case is taken out of the province of liberty, and placed in that of morality or law.
— from On Liberty by John Stuart Mill

But that is a desirable death, which nature brings on us by way of dissolution.
— from Discourses on a Sober and Temperate Life Wherein is demonstrated, by his own Example, the Method of Preserving Health to Extreme Old Age by Luigi Cornaro

Around the spot were high copses that hid it from the rest of the field, and, at the time this conflict occurred, the fight was raging in a different direction.
— from The White Chief: A Legend of Northern Mexico by Mayne Reid

No human being knows just why the mole has such a complex system of underground streets and tunnels; perhaps it is because he finds that a greater feeling of safety surrounds his home when he knows that in case of danger he can escape in a dozen directions.
— from The Human Side of Animals by Royal Dixon

In a damp, dirty chamber, whose brick floor seemed to have been unsuspicious of even the existence of brooms for centuries, was sitting the cavalier whom we have so often named in connection with Agnes.
— from Agnes of Sorrento by Harriet Beecher Stowe

I. A desperate dragon, of singular size,— (His name was Wing-Fang-Scratch-Claw-Fum ,)— Flew up one day to the top of the skies, While all the spectators with terror were dumb.
— from Bentley's Miscellany, Volume I by Various

We must not be over-hasty, because we are on the eve of a most important decision, and if a delegate declares that he is not able to prosecute the war any further we must not consider him cowardly or unfaithful.
— from The peace negotiations between the governments of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, and the representatives of the British government, which terminated in the peace concluded at Vereeniging on the 31st May, 1902 by J. D. (John Daniel) Kestell

He did not seem to mind if a dozen doctors came to town at the same time as a dozen doubles.
— from Over the Pass by Frederick Palmer

Thus no audience of the fifth century would have consented to see Heracles introduced into a drama dealing with Orestes.
— from The Heroic Age by H. Munro (Hector Munro) Chadwick

Doubtless Shakespeare, in the heat of dramatic vision, lived his characters, transported himself to their environment, and felt the passion of each, as we do in a dream, dictating their unpremeditated words.
— from Winds Of Doctrine: Studies in Contemporary Opinion by George Santayana