She remembered what Mr. Knightley had once said to her about Mr. Elton, the caution he had given, the conviction he had professed that Mr. Elton would never marry indiscreetly; and blushed to think how much truer a knowledge of his character had been there shewn than any she had reached herself.
— from Emma by Jane Austen

"For the better or the worse?" "The better, decidedly." "Thank you, I hoped so; but one never knows how one seems to other people.
— from Work: A Story of Experience by Louisa May Alcott

Mrs. Kenwigs remembered that Mr Kenwigs had often said that he was not quite satisfied of the propriety of Miss Petowker’s conduct, and wondered how it was that she could have been blinded by such a wretch.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

He couldn't even boast of top-hole health, for the East Africa business had knocked him out so thoroughly that he'd had to take six months' leave.
— from The Garden Party, and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

Dead because some bastard decided to kill hundreds of strangers to make some point."
— from Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Oh, you know how one says the wrong thing, without meaning it.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

It was anguish to have come too late, and to have missed the last word and look; and he strode madly up and down the room, almost raving at the separation and removal which he declared had killed her. 'Oh, speak to him, Louis!' cried Clara.
— from Dynevor Terrace; Or, The Clue of Life — Volume 2 by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge

Margot is married to Chough, our whilom colleague, and makes her migration in his Bedouin train, and does not know how once she thrilled us.
— from Tales of the Chesapeake by George Alfred Townsend

When his fame had spread over all the kingdoms south of Trent, so that no knight that knew him or saw the device of the golden falcon on his shield would have to do with him, Sir Geraint began to seek ease and pleasure, for there was no one who would joust with him.
— from King Arthur's Knights The Tales Re-told for Boys & Girls by Henry Gilbert

Her quick brain divined that the arrest of von Kerber had only strengthened the Austrian's claim on Mr. Fenshawe's sympathies.
— from The Wheel O' Fortune by Louis Tracy

Many and really glaring incivilities, however, I willingly forgive my future reviewer, whereas I pardon nothing to a Gallic or British one, because he knows how one should treat people.–I play with him myself in this anticritique in no specially polite manner, nor do I, as the peasant doffs his hat before higher lightnings, doff mine before his.
— from Hesperus; or, Forty-Five Dog-Post-Days: A Biography. Vol. II. by Jean Paul

The death must be upon him now; the fierce old sea-king had held his throne-room inviolate through many bouts with the grim Reaper, knowing his own strength to conquer.
— from The Pirate Woman by Aylward Edward Dingle

So the king has ordered sacrifices to Baal and has promised him a great temple of stone after the victory.
— from The Golden Hope: A Story of the Time of King Alexander the Great by Robert H. (Robert Higginson) Fuller