For sometimes, when a man falls into a grievous but not incurable malady, which afterwards by intemperance and negligence ruins his constitution and kills him, is not his son, who is not supposed to be suffering from the same malady but only to have a predisposition for it, enjoined to a careful manner of living by his medical man, or friend, or intelligent trainer in gymnastics, or honest guardian, and recommended to abstain from fish and pastry, wine and women, and to take medicine frequently, and to go in for training in the gymnasiums, and so to dissipate and get rid of the small seeds of what might be a serious malady, if he allowed it to come to a head?
— from Plutarch's Morals by Plutarch

We saw the monastery in Hall, and I played the organ there.
— from The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Volume 01 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Their philosophy teaches them that a man's physical power over an object is protected because he has the will to make it his, and it has thus become a part of his very self, the external manifestation of his freedom. /2/
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes

But let others judge how much I have accomplished in each pursuit; I have at least attempted both.
— from De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero

‘I have been married myself I hope, and I have seen other people married.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

I’ll console Gania myself; I have an idea about that.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The former, the crew said must be the Pilgrim; but I had been too long in the Pilgrim to be mistaken in her, and I was right in differing from them; for, upon nearer approach, her long, low shear, sharp bows, and raking masts, told quite another story.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

"Well, Mr. Jarndyce, sir," Mr. Guppy, after a moment's consideration, began, to the great diversion of his mother, which she displayed by nudging Mr. Jobling with her elbow and winking at me in a most remarkable manner, "I had an idea that I should see Miss Summerson by herself and was not quite prepared for your esteemed presence.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

This bewitching music is heard again in Hamlet's farewell to Horatio: If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, Absent thee from felicity awhile, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, To tell my story.
— from Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth by A. C. (Andrew Cecil) Bradley

Prussian troops were marching into Hanover, as if with the aim of ousting the French and restoring the authority of George III; and Hardenberg assured Harrowby in their first interview, on 16th November, that that force would protect the flank of the Anglo-Russian expedition then about to enter the Electorate.
— from William Pitt and the Great War by J. Holland (John Holland) Rose

If any man will stick to this, make it his anchor in times of storm, his pole-star in nights of uncertainty, he will cast out of his life that which is life’s greatest enemy—Fear.
— from 21 by Frank Crane

In which camp, Madame, ought I to range her who bears my name, and who has vowed her affection to me at the foot of the altar?" "Monsieur, could you think—" "I think nothing, Madame; I hope, and I am anxious to know that my hope is well founded.
— from Marguerite de Valois by Alexandre Dumas

The men who had been talking and laughing together instantly paused, and two of them—tall and powerful fellows—snatched up each a weapon, something like a short halberd with a massive iron head, an instrument which they called among themselves a rapp, and with two or three long strides they came up with me, and laying hold upon my arms, drew me, not, you may easily believe, making much resistance, towards the fire.
— from The Purcell Papers — Volume 3 by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

“May I have an ice instead of the tea, if I prefer it, Mr. Trenton?”
— from One Day's Courtship, and The Heralds of Fame by Robert Barr

This grows to a large size in the south-west, often forming a tree 12 feet or more in height, and, in mild winters, blooming until February.
— from Trees and Shrubs for English Gardens by E. T. (Ernest Thomas) Cook

"What made you suspect me?" inquired Hippy, apparently impressed.
— from Grace Harlowe's Third Year at Overton College by Josephine Chase

Others forsooth accuse them, for robbing us of our precious time; but this reproach is ill founded; for if the Romance be abject, none will trifle away their time in reading it, except these who would mispend it however, and if they be excellent, then time is rather spent then mispent in leafing them over.
— from Prefaces to Four Seventeenth-Century Romances Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill, preface to Parthenissa (1655) Sir George Mackenzie, "Apologie for romances," prefixed to Aretina, the serious romance (1660) Nathaniel Ingelo, preface to Bentivolio and Urania (1660) Robert Boyle, preface to Theodora and Didymus (1687) by George Mackenzie