She had a respect for "Angleterre;" and as to "les Anglaises," she would have the women of no other country about her own children, if she could help it.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

And then consider what mere Time will do in such cases; how if a man was great while living, he becomes tenfold greater when dead.
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

In several cases, however, insects found living on different plants, have been observed by Mr. Walsh to present in their larval or mature state, or in both states, slight, though constant differences in colour, size, or in the nature of their secretions.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

In some contemplative hour it detaches itself from the life like a ripe fruit, [46] to become a thought of the mind.
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Vague imaginings of its castle, its three mints, its magnificent apsidal abbey, the chief glory of South Wessex, its twelve churches, its shrines, chantries, hospitals, its gabled freestone mansions—all now ruthlessly swept away—throw the visitor, even against his will, into a pensive melancholy, which the stimulating atmosphere and limitless landscape around him can scarcely dispel.
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

Chief among those who did this fetching and carrying was Captain Bildad’s sister, a lean old lady of a most determined and indefatigable spirit, but withal very kindhearted, who seemed resolved that, if she could help it, nothing should be found wanting in the Pequod, after once fairly getting to sea.
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville

The maid Nan is a little apt to drink, if she can get at liquor; and Mrs. Jewkes happened, or designed, as is too probable, to leave a bottle of cherry-brandy in her way, and the wench drank some of it more than she should; and when she came in to lay the cloth, Mrs. Jewkes perceived it, and fell a rating at her most sadly; for she has too many faults of her own, to suffer any of the like sort in any body else, if she can help it; and she bid her get out of her sight, when we had supped, and go to bed, to sleep off her liquor, before we came to bed.
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

Ay, but, said I, the creature won't let her, if she can help it. Pray, Mrs. Jewkes, favour my escape, for this once; for I am sadly frighted.—Said she, I'll bid the chariot go down, as you order, and wait till you come; and I'll step down and shut the hall door, that you may pass unobserved; for she sits cooling herself in the parlour, over against the staircase.
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

For our Lord Himself is sovereign homeliness, and as homely as He is, so courteous He is: for He is very courteous.
— from Revelations of Divine Love by of Norwich Julian

But now, at last, he could ask the name of his fair unknown (and was told that it was the andante movement of Vinteuil's sonata for the piano and violin), he held it safe, could have it again to himself, at home, as often as he would, could study its language and acquire its secret.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

Indeed, in some cases his interest was so poignant and his advice so frequent—he would speak of our deal—that the lucky winner gave him a small share of his spoils, which Gilmartin accepted without hesitation—he was beyond pride-wounding by now—and promptly used to back some miniature deal of his own on the Consolidated Exchange or even in “Percy’s”—a dingy little bucket shop, where they took orders for two shares of stock on a margin of 1 per cent; that is, where a man could bet as little as two dollars.
— from The Tipster 1901, From "Wall Street Stories" by Edwin Lefevre

Now the Flossy of two weeks ago, if she could have imagined herself in any such business, would have been utterly disgusted with the result, and gone away with her pretty nose very high.
— from Four Girls at Chautauqua by Pansy

She still hoped that Patty would not marry this young man, and did not mean to let her if she could help it; but, having gone the length of inviting him to her house, she treated him accordingly.
— from The Three Miss Kings: An Australian Story by Ada Cambridge

I told whoever it was told me I knew John's mother had her eye on something better known in the newspapers than Lily or Mary, either, and she'd never let him marry in Yorkburg if she could help it.
— from Miss Gibbie Gault by Kate Langley Bosher

The rents of the London poor, a toll upon the produce of Egypt, of the Argentine, or of India, all flow into some country house in the provinces, where it revives in an effective demand for production, or lends to the whole countryside a wealth which, of itself, it could never have produced.
— from The Historic Thames by Hilaire Belloc

In some cases, however, I have reason to believe, that the only part of the work, which the patron ever reads, is the dedication itself.
— from Dealings with the Dead, Volume 2 (of 2) by Lucius M. (Lucius Manlius) Sargent

Was I not formally elected by you in solemn chapter, held in Luckie Martin's change-house, and will you now desert me, and give up your old pastime and privilege?
— from The Abbot by Walter Scott