On an occasion of this kind it becomes more than a moral duty to speak one’s mind.
— from The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People by Oscar Wilde

He embraced the stake with great cheerfulness, and when they went behind him to set fire to the fagots, he said, "Come here, and kindle it before my eyes; for if I had been afraid of it, I had not come to this place."
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

All naming is classification, bringing the individual under the general; and [Pg 380] whatever we know, whether empirically or scientifically, we know it by means of our general ideas.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

Kay kinta ikaw bay magbuut dinhi?
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

At last after two hours lying thus in most extraordinary anguish, crying and roaring, I know not what, whether it was my great sweating that may do it, but upon getting by chance, among my other tumblings, upon my knees, in bed, my pain began to grow less and less, till in an hour after I was in very little pain, but could break no wind, nor make any water, and so continued, and slept well all night.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Moreover, they thought that “as often as the bird was killed, it became multiplied; because every year all the different Capitanes celebrated the same feast of Panes, and were firm in the opinion that the birds sacrificed were but one and the same female.”
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

The king, on hearing from the parrot that the queens had attempted to kill it, became mad with rage.
— from Folk-Tales of Bengal by Lal Behari Day

Nasungkù aku sa naglawis nga kawáyan, I bumped my head on a piece of bamboo that was sticking out.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

Napásù ákung tudlù sa tangsi pagbinira sa kubit, I burnt my hand pulling on the nylon rope when I caught a fish.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

But if she didn't know, if Bella Morrison's tale were true, then it was John, on whom Phoebe's rage returned to fling itself with fresh and maddened bitterness.
— from Fenwick's Career by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

I know I behaved myself, particularly at Tom Poole's, and at Cruikshank's, most like a sulky child; but company and converse are strange to me.
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 5 The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb, 1796-1820 by Charles Lamb

I know it by myself, for when I was in the world, it was so with me; many a good sermon did I hear, many a time was I admonished, desired, entreated, beseeched, threatened, forewarned of what I now suffer; but alas!
— from Works of John Bunyan — Volume 03 by John Bunyan

I came to persuade—” “Nay, I’ll keep it by me,” said Joan.
— from The Witch by Mary Johnston

And if we came not again by the morning, he was to march, openly and in force to the Castle, and demand the person of the King; if Black Michael were not there, as I did not think he would be, the Marshal would take Flavia with him, as swiftly as he could, to Strelsau, and there proclaim Black Michael’s treachery and the probable death of the King, and rally all that there was honest and true round the banner of the princess.
— from The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope

The pen kept intruding between me and my thoughts.
— from Windfalls by A. G. (Alfred George) Gardiner

Do you know I believe most women can sneak a look down their noses from underneath the handkerchief of hope they've tied over their eyes.
— from The White Peacock by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

My natural course on the discovery of Cooper's Creek would have been to have traced it downwards, but I was not unmindful that I should keep it between myself and the track on which Mr. Browne
— from Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia Performed Under the Authority of Her Majesty's Government, During the Years 1844, 5, and 6, Together With A Notice of the Province of South Australia in 1847 by Charles Sturt

The deck of the Chart Room is all smooth metal, and the polishing preparation that's used to keep it bright makes it almost as skid-slippery as a skating rink, if you happen to be thrown a little off-balance.
— from Mars is My Destination by Frank Belknap Long