“Can it really be you?” cried Liza, looking at him with distressed wonder, after her first rush of instinctive gladness.
— from The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

In some kind clasping prison, where their bones May be forth-coming, when the flesh is rotten: But your sweet nature doth abhor these courses; You lothe the widdow's or the orphan's tears Should wash your pavements, or their piteous cries Ring in your roofs, and beat the air for vengeance.
— from Volpone; Or, The Fox by Ben Jonson

Your musical knowledge alone would entitle you to name your own terms, have as many rooms as you like, and mix in the family as much as you chose;—that is—I do not know—if you knew the harp, you might do all that, I am very sure; but you sing as well as play;—yes, I really believe you might, even without the harp, stipulate for what you chose;—and you must and shall be delightfully, honourably and comfortably settled before the Campbells or I have any rest.”
— from Emma by Jane Austen

I know that a few individuals cannot resist a torrent of error and passion, such as swept the South into rebellion, but you can point out, so that we may know those who desire a government, and those who insist on war and its desolation.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

But can it really be you?”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

“I really beg your pardon!” said my companion, who had ruffled the little man’s temper by bursting into an explosion of laughter.
— from A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

I really believe you do it on purpose; but you may be certain that I shall pay you back in the same kind: indifference for indifference; donnant donnant is my motto.
— from Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo Edited with a Biography of Juliette Drouet by Louis Guimbaud

I repeat, before you go any further, that the battle is lost beforehand.
— from The History of a Crime The Testimony of an Eye-Witness by Victor Hugo

This meaning is concealed under another in an infinite number of passages, and in some, though rarely, it is revealed; but yet so that the passages in which it is concealed are equivocal, and can suit both meanings; whereas the passages where it is disclosed are unequivocal, and can only suit the spiritual meaning.
— from Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal

I remember bright yellow, shining floors, lustres wrapped in stiff muslin, narrow, striped rugs which stretched not straight from door to door, as they usually do, but along the walls, so that not venturing to touch the bright floor with my muddy boots I had to describe a rectangle in each room.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

"Never, Sir, because I really believe you thought me quite a hopeless subject of speculation; that T was cut out irreparably for 'an old maid.'"
— from Mary Seaham: A Novel. Volume 1 of 3 by Mrs. (Elizabeth Caroline) Grey

no, not even when for the first time you looked down upon Avon's dun stream; for then, if I remember rightly, your joy shewed itself in tears; but now, my dear, you are dimpling with smiles, though I really believe you are doing all you can to hide them from me.
— from The Widow Barnaby. Vol. 3 (of 3) by Frances Milton Trollope

When you have it really bad you simply breathe dynamite, barricades, brimstone, everything that is emphatic.
— from The Workingman's Paradise: An Australian Labour Novel by John Miller

Whether at the stage when the species is represented by reproductive cells, or at the stage when it is represented by eggs, or at the stage when it is represented by young, the parent does everything for it, and it does nothing for the parent.
— from The Principles of Biology, Volume 1 (of 2) by Herbert Spencer

"Let me tell you—there was one day when I rocked before you—" "To think I could diminish after that," he said slowly.
— from The Last Ditch by Will Levington Comfort

Regular heartstrokes,—my dear ’Steban, I really believe you have been quite in demand.
— from Her Sailor: A Love Story by Marshall Saunders

Don’t flatter yourself that any article of yours is rejected because you are unknown to fame.
— from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes

"I really believe you were a little pleased to see me come back just now," he said.
— from Winston of the Prairie by Harold Bindloss

“Thank you,” I replied, “but you’re more of his colour.”
— from Wild Life in the Land of the Giants: A Tale of Two Brothers by Gordon Stables