On being brought to the scaffold and asked if he was sorry for what he had done, he replied yes, he was sorry for having let ‘em off so easy, and hoped all Christian husbands would pardon him the offence.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

And as I have illustrated the early strength of the Renaissance by the story of Amis and Amile, a story which comes from the North, in which even a certain racy Teutonic flavour is perceptible, so I shall illustrate that other element of its early sweetness, a languid excess of sweetness even, by another story printed in the same volume of the Bibliotheque Elzevirienne, and of about the same date, a story which comes, characteristically, from the South, and connects itself with the literature of Provence.
— from The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry by Walter Pater

These two beings who had loved each other so exclusively, and with so touching an affection, and who had lived so long for each other now suffered side by side, each on the other’s account; without acknowledging it to each other, without anger towards each other, and with a smile. H2 anchor CHAPTER VIII—THE CHAIN-GANG Jean Valjean was the more unhappy of the two.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

“I grant you the name is good in itself, and Lord Edmund or Sir Edmund sound delightfully; but sink it under the chill, the annihilation of a Mr., and Mr. Edmund is no more than Mr. John or Mr. Thomas.
— from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

price; if he was lucky enough, or smart enough, to sell them when they were fetching 70s.
— from Rubber by Edith A. Browne

Nor is it easy for me to understand you when you represent both the mystical and literal explanation of scripture equally erroneous.
— from A Series of Letters, in Defence of Divine Revelation In Reply to Rev. Abner Kneeland's Serious Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Same. To Which is Added, a Religious Correspondence, Between the Rev. Hosea Ballou, and the Rev. Dr. Joseph Buckminster and Rev. Joseph Walton, Pastors of Congregational Churches in Portsmouth, N. H. by Hosea Ballou

“And in this hunting paradise, they killed on one day, September 8th, two buffalo, one large elk, one small elk, four deer, three turkeys, and a squirrel.
— from The Young Alaskans on the Missouri by Emerson Hough

1. Metaphysics is pre-supposed by all the sciences; and indeed, all our views of life, even our simplest experiences, involve metaphysical assumptions.
— from Christianity and Ethics: A Handbook of Christian Ethics by Archibald B. D. (Archibald Browning Drysdale) Alexander

His woman sought ter rechristen ther gal Lizzie or Lake Erie or somethin' else befittin petticoats.
— from A Pagan of the Hills by Charles Neville Buck

I hate To hear of sorrow: how can we be sad, Who love each other so entirely?
— from The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 5 Poetry by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

Each slave is entitled to his time on Sundays and all other holidays, beyond two hours allowed for necessary labor, except on sugar estates during the grinding season.
— from To Cuba and Back by Richard Henry Dana

More like evaporation or sublimation, except that there was no gradual diminution in volume, and there was no detectable residue, either solid, liquid, or gaseous.
— from First Lensman by E. E. (Edward Elmer) Smith