For example, how excellent it would be if some reader who is sufficiently rich in experience and the knowledge of life to be acquainted with the sort of characters which I have described herein would annotate in detail the book, without missing a single page, and undertake to read it precisely as though, laying pen and paper before him, he were first to peruse a few pages of the work, and then to recall his own life, and the lives of folk with whom he has come in contact, and everything which he has seen with his own eyes or has heard of from others, and to proceed to annotate, in so far as may tally with his own experience or otherwise, what is set forth in the book, and to jot down the whole exactly as it stands pictured to his memory, and, lastly, to send me the jottings as they may issue from his pen, and to continue doing so until he has covered the entire work!
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

When Carlotta heard of the astounding reception bestowed upon her understudy, she was at once cured of an incipient attack of bronchitis and a bad fit of sulking against the management and lost the slightest inclination to shirk her duties.
— from The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

Well, if only she could rejoice in her wonderful new surroundings, have that much at least to set against the indifference, the letting go—but she could not.
— from The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim

This second sours of Men, while yet but few, And while the dread of judgement past remains Fresh in thir mindes, fearing the Deitie, With some regard to what is just and right Shall lead thir lives, and multiplie apace, Labouring the soile, and reaping plenteous crop, Corn wine and oyle; and from the herd or flock, Oft sacrificing Bullock, Lamb, or Kid, With large Wine-offerings pour’d, and sacred Feast Shal spend thir dayes in joy unblam’d, and dwell Long time in peace by Families and Tribes Under paternal rule; till one shall rise Of proud ambitious heart, who not content With fair equalitie, fraternal state, Will arrogate Dominion undeserv’d Over his brethren, and quite dispossess Concord and law of Nature from the Earth; Hunting (and Men not Beasts shall be his game)
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton

They had agreed it was best to walk, that morning at least, to see if she could do it every day—sixty cents a week for car fare being quite an item under the circumstances.
— from Sister Carrie: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser

"Can't I go too?" said Maggie, who in this first day of meeting again loved Tom's shadow.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

Those then that readily praise and join in applauding some word or action on the part of someone whether in jest or earnest, only do temporary harm for the moment, but those who injure the character by their praise, aye, and by their flattery undermine the morals, act like those slaves who do not steal from the bin, but from the seed corn.
— from Plutarch's Morals by Plutarch

To avoid accidents, we even make a Law that suicide shall not defraud us; that a criminal who kills himself does not the less incur forfeiture of goods.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

From any other lips we should have called this pleasantry a— Number Five shook her head very slightly, and gave me a look that seemed to say, "Don't frighten the other Teacups.
— from Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works by Oliver Wendell Holmes

He loves the mind in all its modes to trace, And all the manners of the changing race; 430 Silent he walks the road of life along, And views the aims of its tumultuous throng; He finds what shapes the Proteus-passions take, And what strange waste of life and joy they make, And loves to show them in their varied ways, With honest blame or with unflattering praise.
— from George Crabbe: Poems, Volume 1 (of 3) by George Crabbe

May God give me might, As living thou shalt see me ne'er from now!"
— from Renaissance in Italy, Volume 4 (of 7) Italian Literature, Part 1 by John Addington Symonds

This uncouth device is not an invention of the Manxmen, for it is found on some very ancient coins,—Greek, I believe; but at any rate it is now the device of our subject Island of Man, and, like that set in motion, and nothing else, was the object that approached me, only it had a head where the three legs were joined, and a voice came out of the head to this effect, 'Oh missis, you hab to take me out of dis here bird field, me
— from Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation: 1838-1839 by Fanny Kemble

In 1840 he married Mary Walsh, the sister of a fellow student at Princeton, who had shared his religious doubts and had, with him, turned his back on the ministry and left the Seminary.
— from The Letters of William James, Vol. 1 by William James

As I am not a jot a better geographer than King Pyrrhus, I can at present recollect but one lady more who reigns alone, and that is her Majesty of Otaheite, lately discovered by Mr. Bankes and Dr. Solander; and for whom, your ladyship's compassionate breast must feel the tenderest emotions,' she having been cruelly deprived of her faithful minister and lover Tobiu, since dead at Batavia.
— from The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 4 by Horace Walpole

"I shall get Raby Gregor to make me a little trolly so that I can get about."
— from Wastralls: A Novel by C. A. (Catharine Amy) Dawson Scott

And then he added, with calculated softness, as though recalling a pleasant memory, "Alec lost the suit."
— from Otherwise Phyllis by Meredith Nicholson

For if I have within me one bright, heavenly desire, I owe it to these feelings, which first poisoned my pleasure in the world, and drew me at length to seek for it elsewhere, and now I wish never to have peace within my breast while one desire lives there for anything but God.
— from Life of Father Ignatius of St. Paul, Passionist (The Hon. & Rev. George Spencer). by Pius a Sp. Sancto (Pius a Spiritu Sancto)