Even from a technical point of view these reflections were justified when, to my great amusement and surprise, Semper, in the full uniform of a citizen guard, with a hat bedecked with the national colours, asked for me at the Town Hall, and informed me of the extremely faulty construction of the barricades in the Wild Strufergasse and the neighbouring Brudergasse.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

Why, in naming the most amiable, cannot I recall them and myself also to that happy age in which our moments, pleasing as innocent, were passed with such happiness together?
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

In order that the human frame may decay and be whirled around the sun, is it necessary to drag man with his high, his divine mind, out of non-existence, as if in mockery, and to turn him again into earth?
— from The Black Monk, and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

MAJOR:—In reply to your verbal statement that your instructions did not allow you to alter the conditions upon which a passport could be given to us, we say that we are willing to proceed to Fortress Monroe and there to have an informal conference with any person or persons that President Lincoln may appoint on the basis of his letter to Francis P. Blair of the 18th of January ultimo, or upon any other terms or conditions that he may hereafter propose not inconsistent with the essential principles of self-government and popular rights, upon which our institutions are founded.
— from The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Complete by Abraham Lincoln

The female population eagerly listened, while she painted in vivid colours the aim of education, in raising the status of women, and extending their spheres not only of influence in the occult manner which had hitherto been their way of working through others, but in an open manner, which compelled attention; and she dwelt on certain brilliant achievements of women, and of others which stood before them, and towards which their education, passing out of the old grooves, was preparing them to take their place among men, and temper their harshness and indifference to suffering with the laws of mercy and humanity, speaking with an authority and equality such as should ensure attention, no longer in home and nursery whispering a
— from Modern Broods; Or, Developments Unlooked For by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge

I sometimes think there is nothing else left of me; and then this happens, and I see that I have not gone deep enough yet.
— from Watersprings by Arthur Christopher Benson

At noon, when she was eating her dinner with Abby and Maria, Abby turned to her and inquired if young Mr. Lloyd had spoken to her when he came through the room.
— from The Portion of Labor by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

And when you came again the next day, and spoke as you did, first to me, and then to her, and I was frightened and lost my courage, fearing lest you should speak to others also; then Sara took the only expedient she could think of to silence you, to stop you effectually, and thus secure her father's peace.
— from For the Major: A Novelette by Constance Fenimore Woolson

He was never happy until he had discovered some inaccessible and impracticable mountain and then thrown himself against it and come to grips with it in dead earnest and either conquered it or been thrown back from it utterly and completely exhausted, but with the satisfaction that anyhow he had exercised every nerve and muscle and faculty to the full.
— from Mount Everest, the Reconnaissance, 1921 by A. F. R. (Alexander Frederick Richmond) Wollaston

The second prouince is vnder the sée of Yorke, and of these; either hath hir archbishop resident commonlie within hir owne limits, who hath not onelie the cheefe dealing in matters apperteining to the hierarchie and iurisdiction of the church; but also great authoritie in ciuill affaires touching the gouernement of the common wealth: so far foorth as their commissions and seuerall circuits doo extend.
— from Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volume 1, Complete by William Harrison