However, they remained stolid and motionless, and the mistress left the room to inquire from her superiors what was to be done.
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

left to pay for his dinner: they make great mirth at this, my Lord Bruncker having lately given great matter of offence both to them and us all, that we are at present mightily displeased with him.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Are the sexes really races, each with its own code of morality, and their mutual love a mere device of Nature to keep things going?
— from Howards End by E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster

“How do you mean?” “Are not all men able to make love every day, and every hour, just as they eat, drink and sleep every day?”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

And he is by no means apt to make laments about things which cannot be helped, or requests about those which are trivial; because to be thus disposed with respect to these things is consequent only upon real anxiety about them.
— from The Ethics of Aristotle by Aristotle

re late the cry of blood Rang on the midnight air, The mournful lapsing of the flood, The wild winds in the lonely wood, Claim sole dominion there.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

Idiyáhun ta ni ug maáyu arun ta makaganansiya, Let’s plan it
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

He was always busy; kept the rooms tidied up, the boots polished, the clothes brushed, the wash-basin full of clean water, my dress clothes laid out and ready for the lecture-hall an hour ahead of time; and he dressed me from head to heel in spite of my determination to do it myself, according to my lifelong custom.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

Sweet is the swallow twittering on the eaves At daybreak, when the mower whets his scythe, And stock-doves murmur, and the milkmaid leaves Her little lonely bed, and carols blithe To see the heavy-lowing cattle wait Stretching their huge and dripping mouths across the farmyard gate.
— from Poems, with The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde

The lovely one with light-brown hair May trust her thoughts to senseless air; Her thoughts will find like thoughts in me; And though my love I cannot see, Affection's thoughts fly in the wind, And meet each other, true and kind.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

The brooks on the hills in their crystaline flow, Singing out of their mystical springs, The heralds of joy to the valleys below, Making all things more lovely wherever they go, Are the types of thy spirit, whose beautiful wings Make gladness and music wherever they go.
— from Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXVI, No. 6, June 1850 by Various

If you ask me to mention a tree most likely to live when planted by unskilled hands, I should name the willow.
— from Cornell Nature-Study Leaflets Being a selection, with revision, from the teachers' leaflets, home nature-study lessons, junior naturalist monthlies and other publications from the College of Agriculture, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., 1896-1904 by New York State College of Agriculture

The by-now-considerable throng were watching him with every mark of acute enjoyment; and the moment appeared to Mr. Lavender auspicious for addressing them.
— from The Works of John Galsworthy An Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of Galsworthy by John Galsworthy

It’s dead to me, and I’m dead to it,” he muttered, as the man left the room, giving place to Jane, who hurried in with covered dishes upon a tray.
— from Sir Hilton's Sin by George Manville Fenn

Their armor sat on them, strong men as true, Much lighter than your velvet rests on you.
— from Poems by Victor Hugo

A little later Joseph Le Conte, the beloved geologist of the California State University, took me under his wing, and set me to work solving problems in geology, and I was elected, in due time, a Fellow of the Geological Society of England, a society honored by the counsels of such men as Tyndall, Murchison, Lyell, and all the great geologists of the English speaking world.
— from Quit Your Worrying! by George Wharton James

It is a curious circumstance, that the political party to which Lord Lansdowne is opposed can boast a man among those most likely to hold the reins of government, to whom all that I have said of Lord Lansdowne might, with little modification, be applied.
— from The Idler in France by Blessington, Marguerite, Countess of

I begin to reconcile myself again to my lot, and value the happy mischance which has brought me under this kindly roof.
— from The Inferno by August Strindberg