Many a tear have I already shed to the memory of its departed master in a summer-house which is now reduced to ruins, but was his favourite resort, and now is mine.
— from The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

Think of me at this hour, in a strange place, labouring under a blackness of distress that no fancy can exaggerate, and yet well aware that, if you will but punctually serve me, my troubles will roll away like a story that is told.
— from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

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

Downstairs she searched hurriedly, peeping under people's elbows, trying not to annoy others and yet to make a thorough hunt in a short time so as not to keep the others waiting.
— from Betty Gordon in Washington; Or, Strange Adventures in a Great City by Alice B. Emerson

When this commotion had a little subsided, the principal chief squatted once more before me, and throwing himself into a sudden rage, poured forth a string of philippics, which I was at no loss to understand, from the frequent recurrence of the word Happar, as being directed against the natives of the adjoining valley.
— from Typee: A Romance of the South Seas by Herman Melville

The barber sighed for such an unadventurous soul; and John, who could not bear to hurt even the most superficial emotions of a barber, changed his mind and threw him into a smiling bustle of gratification.
— from Poor Relations by Compton MacKenzie

In every line, except in the line of character-building, the world seems to have been made over, but these marvellous changes only emphasize the fact that man, too, must be born again, while they show how impotent are material things to touch the soul of man and transform him into a spiritual being.
— from In His Image by William Jennings Bryan

Rustem singled out, and encountered the king of Mбzinderбn, and fiercely they fought together with sword and javelin; but suddenly, just as he was rushing on with overwhelming force, his adversary, by his magic art, transformed himself into a stony rock.
— from The Persian Literature, Comprising The Shah Nameh, The Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan, Volume 1 by Firdawsi

“Beware of the girl you met at the hotel in Alencon; she will betray you,” said the Chevalier de Valois, in the young man’s ear; and immediately he and his little Breton horse disappeared among the bushes from which he had issued.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

Will you remember me to your mother and tell her I am sorry not to see her to-day?
— from Castle Craneycrow by George Barr McCutcheon

Belonging to one of the first families in France, still young, and with a face that would have been agreeable had it not been for the almost ridiculous and disproportionate length of his nose, M. de Lucenay joined to a restless love of constant motion the habit of talking and laughing fearfully loud upon subjects quite at variance with good taste or polished manners, and throwing himself into attitudes so abrupt and awkward that it was only by recalling who he was, that his being found in the midst of the most distinguished societies in Paris could be accounted for, or a reason assigned for tolerating his gestures and language; for both of which he had now, by dint of long practice and adherence, acquired a sort of free license or impunity.
— from The Mysteries of Paris, Volume 2 of 6 by Eugène Sue

'What is it?' "'If you wouldn't mind, when you go ashore, to see Miss Macedoine and tell her I am sorry she couldn't—you see,' he broke off, suddenly, 'I said I'd see her this evening.
— from Captain Macedoine's Daughter by William McFee

But it was only a man being arrested for leaning against a lamp-post—a rather common offence at that time, for most of the normal occupations of the citizens had been prohibited, and they mooned about the highways in a state of listless discontent.
— from In the Sweet Dry and Dry by Bart Haley