To be sure, I almost cried my eyes out when you gave me warning.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

Therefore, put forth the best mental effort of which you are capable; work as hard as you can (if learning is work rather than pleasure); do your very best to succeed; and do not, when I have put all the necessary means at your disposal, allow it to be said that you have failed to do your part.
— from De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero

But I don't see why Count Fosco should celebrate the victory of the criminal over Society with so much exultation, or why you, Sir Percival, should applaud him so loudly for doing it.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Well, can you be a little more explicit on what you think, what you recall of this discussion about radicalism, what it consisted of?
— from Warren Commission (15 of 26): Hearings Vol. XV (of 15) by United States. Warren Commission

“I feel as if I had not a whole bone in my body; as I have not had a whole night in bed for the last six days, I can hardly keep my eyes open, while you, who have been doing as much as we have, are going about as actively as if you had had nothing to do for a week.”
— from Won By the Sword : a tale of the Thirty Years' War by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

Mademoiselle Esther, of whom you spoke, and who poisoned herself, made away with millions.—If you will take my advice, you will get out of it, monsieur.
— from Poor Relations by Honoré de Balzac

On the second of May 1842, Mr Thomas Duncombe, Member for Finsbury, presented a petition, very numerously signed, of which the prayer was as follows: "Your petitioners, therefore, exercising their just constitutional right, demand that your Honourable House, to remedy the many gross and manifest evils of which your petitioners complain, do immediately, without alteration, deduction, or addition, pass into a law the document entitled the People's Charter.
— from Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches — Volume 4 by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron

“And that, I suppose,” he said, waving his stick towards Mr. Earles’ office, “was your last resource.”
— from Anna the Adventuress by E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim

‘Trying,’ probably, hasn’t much effect on what you feel.
— from Peter by E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson

“Will you keep silence in your boat, Mr Easy, or will you not?” cried the master; “you’re a disgrace to the service, sir.”
— from Mr. Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marryat

Motioning with his hand to the fiddlers to begin, the prior cleared his throat, and, to the same simple but touching melody they had marched in to supper, sang the following chant:— GOOD-LUCK TO THE FRIARS OF OLD 'Of all trades that flourished of old, Before men knew reading and writing, The friars' was best I am told, If one wasn't much given to fighting; For, rent free, you lived at your ease— You had neither to work nor to labour— You might eat of whatever you please, For the prog was supplied by your neighbour.
— from Jack Hinton: The Guardsman by Charles James Lever

In about three months an occasion occurred in which Mr. Francis gave some opposition to a measure proposed by Mr. Hastings, which brought on a duel, upon the mischievous effects of which your Committee have already made their observations.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 08 (of 12) by Edmund Burke