But I can remember nothing;—not even that particular riddle which you have heard me mention; I can only recollect the first stanza; and there are several.
— from Emma by Jane Austen

"Then I shall want two stanch men, in case of resistance.
— from The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle

I wrote you at Chatillon, and sent you a power of attorney to enable you to receive various sums of money in course of remittance to me.
— from Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812 For the First Time Collected and Translated, with Notes Social, Historical, and Chronological, from Contemporary Sources by Emperor of the French Napoleon I

He called, he said, to pay his respects to us before we left town, and made many inquiries concerning our return; and, when Mrs Mirvan told him we were going into the country without any view of again quitting it, he expressed concern in such terms-so polite, so flattering, so serious-that I could hardly forbear being sorry for myself.
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney

If the challenge is not accepted, or is accepted and the attempt fails, we are far enough from certainty still; but we have done the best that the existing state of human reason admits of; we have neglected nothing that could give the truth a chance of reaching us: if the lists are kept open, we may hope that if there be a better truth, it will be found when the human mind is capable of receiving it; and in the meantime we may rely on having attained such approach to truth, as is possible in our own day.
— from On Liberty by John Stuart Mill

As for me I can only repeat, may God protect you and all dear to you!”
— from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

On John's footer days she never once forgot his sweater, and she usually carried an umbrella in her mouth in case of rain.
— from Peter and Wendy by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie

It was her mother who confided her to me; I can only resign her to her mother.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

This also happens where the motion is so slow as not to supply a constant train of fresh ideas to the senses, as fast as the mind is capable of receiving new ones into it; and so other ideas of our own thoughts, having room to come into our minds between those offered to our senses by the moving body, there the sense of motion is lost; and the body, though it really moves, yet, not changing perceivable distance with some other bodies as fast as the ideas of our own minds do naturally follow one another in train, the thing seems to stand still; as is evident in the hands of clocks, and shadows of sun-dials, and other constant but slow motions, where, though, after certain intervals, we perceive, by the change of distance, that it hath moved, yet the motion itself we perceive not. 12.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 1 and 2 by John Locke

It is because man is capable of rising above the things of the body, and of contemning life itself, of which the beasts have not the least notion, that he can multiply these same things of the body to a degree which inferior races are equally unable to conceive.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

"I have just returned from a visit to our aged friend, Miss Montefiore, after having had a most interesting conversation, or rather, I might say, a Bible reading with her.
— from Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ by Aaron Bernstein

"I beg your pardon, Captain," said Kingsley, the young man in charge of radio operation, "but what about Washington?
— from Moon Glow by G. L. Vandenburg

I wanted to explain to him the best way to use the sharping stone, but I felt powerless to move: I could only remain at the stile looking on.
— from The Red Horizon by Patrick MacGill

I have actually written to my husband,—you read the letter,—acquainting him with my intended change of religion, and my desire to mark the sincerity of my profession by that most signal of all proofs,—a moneyed one.
— from The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly by Charles James Lever

General Zankievitch sent an ultimatum to the rebels demanding that they lay down their arms, and menacing in case of refusal to open fire with artillery if the order was not obeyed by September 3d at 10 o’clock.
— from Ten Days That Shook the World by John Reed

In this great and most important characteristic of representation, the Tiers Etat of France was necessarily deficient; {60} in fact, the part of the French constitution, which, without exactly corresponding to the country gentlemen of England, most nearly resembled them, was a proportion of the Rural Noblesse of France, who were represented amongst the Estate of the Nobility.
— from Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume I. by Walter Scott

PART II., containing a most interesting Collection of Rare and Curious Books in Early English Literature, is in preparation, and will be forwarded to any gentleman sending his address.
— from Notes and Queries, Vol. V, Number 121, February 21, 1852 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by Various

Experiments may be made, in course of researches, of very great interest and importance to medical science; and, on the contrary, they may be performed merely to demonstrate phenomena about which there is no doubt, or to impress on the memory of a student some well-known fact.
— from An Ethical Problem Or, Sidelights upon Scientific Experimentation on Man and Animals by Albert Leffingwell

For in the event of his death, the charge would be murder; in case of recovery, the offense would be merely attempted murder, or shooting with intent to kill, for which bail was allowable.
— from The Colonel's Dream by Charles W. (Charles Waddell) Chesnutt

Besides, the vansire differs in the colour of its hair from all ferrets, though those, like every other animal which man is careful of rearing and increasing, vary so much in colour, that there is a difference even between male and female.
— from Buffon's Natural History. Volume 08 (of 10) Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c by Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de