The fact was that this was the first attempt at a friendship of his own which Arthur had made, and Tom hailed it as a grand step.
— from Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes

When I have most need to employ a friend And most assured that he is a friend, Deep, hollow, treacherous, and full of guile, Be he unto me!
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

I at once rode past the carriage, and, keeping to the main road, I went on for a few miles, and then halted in a convenient place to see if the carriage passed.
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Diligence and accuracy are the only merits which an historical writer may ascribe to himself; if any merit, indeed, can be assumed from the performance of an indispensable duty.
— 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

Then, emphasising his words with his loud voice and frequent gestures, he related the history of the Mormons from Biblical times: how that, in Israel, a Mormon prophet of the tribe of Joseph published the annals of the new religion, and bequeathed them to his son Mormon; how, many centuries later, a translation of this precious book, which was written in Egyptian, was made by Joseph Smith, junior, a Vermont farmer, who revealed himself as a mystical prophet in 1825; and how, in short, the celestial messenger appeared to him in an illuminated forest, and gave him the annals of the Lord.
— from Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

If the number and not the loftiness of an author’s merits is to be our standard of success, judged by this test we must admit that Hyperides is a far superior orator to Demosthenes.
— from On the Sublime by active 1st century Longinus

Go to your mother and tell her I am coming.
— from The Arabian Nights Entertainments by Andrew Lang

But, if the writs and members arrive together, here is at best a new trial of skill amongst the candidates, after one set of them have well aired themselves with their two voyages of 6000 miles.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

The elder of the two carried a bag, which he flung down, addressing the women in a loud and scolding tone, which they answered by a shower of treble sauciness; while a black cur ran barking up to Maggie, and threw her into a tremor that only found a new cause in the curses with which the younger man called the dog off, and gave him a rap with a great stick he held in his hand.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

And yet more noble, it seems to pass from itself, and to enter the memory, and to hover in a silvery transformation there, until the outward book is but a body and its soul and spirit are flown to you, and possess your memory like a spirit.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

Let me say right here, that I regard marriage as the holiest institution among men.
— from The Ghosts, and Other Lectures by Robert Green Ingersoll

You must see him for me, give him a letter from me, and tell him I am very ill.
— from Dora Thorne by Charlotte M. Brame

The watchtower bastion of San Carlos overlooked the northern marshland and the harbor; its armament was likewise small.
— from Artillery Through the Ages A Short Illustrated History of Cannon, Emphasizing Types Used in America by Albert C. Manucy

I have in my lifetime done God the Lord so many an affront that it will make neither more nor less, an I do Him yet another at the point of death; wherefore do you make shift to bring me the holiest and worthiest friar you may avail to have, if any such there be, [38] and leave the rest to me, for that I will assuredly order your affairs and mine own on such wise that all shall go well and you shall have good cause to be satisfied.'
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

Send for Mary; and tell her I advised it.”
— from Dr. Sevier by George Washington Cable

I ought not to omit to say here, as a faithful recorder of the facts that have reached me, that in spite of the tremendous doom that overshadows the victims consecrated to Dâvee's altar, they lead resigned and even joyous lives up to the last moment of their existence; and the saying is, that the soul of a god enters the martyr, and transfigures him into a divine, ineffable being, incapable of feeling any pain or regret at the moment of death.
— from The Romance of the Harem by Anna Harriette Leonowens

He was profuse in his admissions and apologies, but he wound up triumphantly with the remark: “But, after all, you must admit that he is a person of genius.”
— from Windfalls by A. G. (Alfred George) Gardiner

[1782] That a sacrifice had been made of the Mass appeared to him “Idolatry and a shameful abuse,” a “twofold impiety and abomination”; its abomination no tongue could express.
— from Luther, vol. 4 of 6 by Hartmann Grisar

I quote the following passages from a leading article on a letter of mine, therefore, with all respect, and with a genuine conviction that the course of conduct advocated by the writer must appear to him in a very different light from that under which I see it:--
— from Science & Education: Essays by Thomas Henry Huxley

—The Radziwills most kindly arranged a musical matinée at their house in a pretty vaulted room opening on to their splendid garden.
— from Memoirs of the Duchesse De Dino (Afterwards Duchesse de Talleyrand et de Sagan), 1841-1850 by Dino, Dorothée, duchesse de