my father would cry—(smiling mysteriously, and giving a nod—but without interrupting him)—and being link'd fast, an' please your honour, arm in arm with Mrs. Bridget, I dragg'd her after me, by means of which she fell backwards soss against the bridge—and Trim's foot (my uncle Toby would cry, taking the story out of his mouth) getting into the cuvette, he tumbled full against the bridge too.—It was a thousand to one, my uncle Toby would add, that the poor fellow did not break his leg.—Ay truly, my father would say—a limb is soon broke, brother Toby, in such encounters.—And so, an' please your honour, the bridge, which your honour knows was a very slight one, was broke down betwixt us, and splintered all to pieces.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

Secondly, he affirms that music and gymnastic are not, as common opinion is apt to imagine, intended, the one for the cultivation of the mind and the other of the body, but that they are both equally designed for the improvement of the mind.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

I did call him once, and he threatened to strangle her if she was not quiet; but she began again the instant he left the room, moaning and grieving all night long, though I screamed for vexation that I couldn’t sleep.’
— from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

The wisdom that had been before him or at a distance from him in the world, was in a manner as good as not there for him.
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

So—better!—But this worship of the Queen, That honour too wherein she holds him—this, This was the sunshine that hath given the man A growth, a name that branches o'er the rest, And strength against all odds, and what the King So prizes—overprizes—gentleness.
— from Idylls of the King by Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron

I am a priest, sir, and the secrets of confession, for instance, must remain between me and God, and not between me and human justice.”
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

The invitation of the ministers and generals at Nice was of little moment, unless it were confirmed by the voice of the army.
— 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

well we didn’t, ’kase now she’s all fixed up agin mos’ as good as new, en we’s got a new lot o’ stuff, in de place o’ what ’uz los’.”
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Then he, resembling the wind in rush, arrived at the irrepressible ocean—abode of Varuna—went on, enveloping the welkin, on the aerial way, visited by showers, ranged by fowls and Gandharbas, graced by the iris; embellished by shining vehicles rolling on, drawn by lions, or elephants, or tigers, or bird-serpents; presided over by eminently pious and righteous persons who have won the regions of heaven; and therefore appearing as if adorned by the (five) Fires; of the touch of Açani or Vayra ; (ever) served by Fire bearing sacrificial oblations; garnished by planets and stars and astral luminaries, and the Sun and the Moon; thronged with Maharshis, and Gandharbas and Nāgas, and Yakhas; and pure, and speckless;—the support of the universe—inhabited by Viçwāvasu; lorded over by the elephants of the king of the celestials; the orbit of the Sun and Moon, endowed with auspiciousness constituting the canopy of this live world; blameless; and made by Brahmā; crowded with countless heroes, and Vidyādharas.
— from The Rāmāyana, Volume Two. Āranya, Kishkindhā, and Sundara Kāndam by Valmiki

During the past decade, newspaper and magazine articles galore, and not a few books, have been written on what is called the "Race Problem," the problem caused by the presence in this country of some ten millions of black and variously-shaded colored people known as Negroes.
— from The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1995, Memorial Issue by Various

The walls of the chapel were decorated with rich marbles and gilding, and new altars were set up in honour of Saint Louis and Santa Beatrice, the patron saints of the duke and duchess.
— from Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan, 1475-1497 by Julia Cartwright

And then a gentleman gave me a guinea a night to tell the story at the Empire Music 'All—just to tell 'em in my own words—barring one."
— from The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

Their presence, however, always brings luck, the cattle thrive where they are, the utensils of which they have made use, if broken are mended and made as good as new.
— from The Fairy Mythology Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries by Thomas Keightley

One by one they had married and gone, and now in her darkened world she was enduring a more fearful weight of woe than blindness.
— from Idle Hour Stories by Eugenia Dunlap Potts

He had massed a great army near Boulogne, ready to send it across the channel.
— from Facing the German Foe by James Fiske

THE EIGHTH CHAPTER 1 A month after Gilbert and Ninian had left England, Henry went to London for a couple of days on business connected with his books.
— from Changing Winds A Novel by St. John G. (St. John Greer) Ervine

I tell you what, Sigrid, you shall come with me and get a new English story at Beyer’s, to cheer you in Frithiof’s absence.
— from A Hardy Norseman by Edna Lyall