That it should be you—( he would loosen her hands, for he cannot breathe.
— from Plays by Susan Glaspell

His ministers trembled in silence: but an Æthiopian buffoon presumed to insinuate the true cause of the evil; and future venality was left without excuse, by annexing an adequate salary to the office of cadhi.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

It sounds beautiful, but I don’t understand it.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London

I made Betty (such was her name) take a country walk with me, and the scenery there is so beautiful that no poet nor painter could imagine a more delicious prospect.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

The lobster was instantly surrounded by a halo of pleasing reminiscences, and curiosity about 'the charming young ladies' diverted his mind from the comical mishap.
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

True, but if you misapprehend my saying, you will enter the ranks of those of whom I spoke before.
— from The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus A new rendering based on the Foulis translation of 1742 by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius

In my fancy the pagan gods and goddesses still walked on earth and talked face to face with men, and in my heart I secretly built shrines to those I loved best.
— from The Story of My Life With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy by Helen Keller

Read Mr. McKinley’s instructions to the Taft Commission, above quoted, that to protect life and property concerned the honor and conscience of their country, and consider if the Ide suggestion does not seem to hide its head and slink away in shame before the strong clear light of what was then a plain duty.
— from The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by James H. (James Henderson) Blount

The imagination should be affected and nothing else; if, at the twentieth representation, an opera gives more pleasure, it is either because the music is better understood, or because it also brings back the feeling it gave at the first.
— from On Love by Stendhal

“Better grin and bear it, Master Ben,” he said; “they’ll soon give up ill-treating you if you take it with good temper, and I should do more harm than good if I was to shove in my oar except at a favourable time; but I shall be on the watch, never fear, and I’ll take care matters don’t grow too bad.”
— from The Boy who sailed with Blake by William Henry Giles Kingston

Access to the platform is secured by means of a Jacob’s ladder of wrought iron secured to one of the columns: access to the lantern is by a winding stair within the house.
— from Smeaton and Lighthouses A Popular Biography, with an Historical Introduction and Sequel by Anonymous

I have a humble retreat in Gascony; I shall bury my life there in the company of my son; he is to-day the only consolation left to me."
— from The Casque's Lark; or, Victoria, the Mother of the Camps by Eugène Sue

I should be glad to do him good, but I should be sorry to do myself ill.
— from The Adventures of Hugh Trevor by Thomas Holcroft

3. For many centuries algebra was confined almost entirely to the solution of equations; one of the most important steps being the enunciation by Diophantus of Alexandria of the laws governing the use of the minus sign.
— from The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia Volume 1 of 28 by Project Gutenberg

He mustn’t see me nor know I’m in Stafford, but I do so want to see and hear him.”
— from Sister Gertrude: A Tale of the West Riding by D. F. E. Sykes

In the judgment on the petition of 1815, it is stated by your Lordship, [A] "I have searched, and caused a most careful search to be made into all the records and procedures on lunacy which are extant.
— from A Letter to the Right Honorable the Lord Chancellor, on the Nature and Interpretation of Unsoundness of Mind, and Imbecility of Intellect by John Haslam

"Sir," said the engineer, "at midnight, when the tale is told, I shall be three hundred miles from here, but if you are not the man, then it is a tale that I shall not care to hear."
— from The Candidate: A Political Romance by Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler

If so be ye will yield you unto Sir Kay the Seneschal, I will save your lives, but else not."
— from The Age of Chivalry by Thomas Bulfinch