“I do not, Sir,” said I, “and I beg you not to-” “Mortifying, indeed, Madam,” interrupted he, “a lady to wait for a gentleman!-O fie!-careless fellow!-What can detain him?-Will you give me leave to seek him?”
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney

But already doth IT attack me and constrain me, this spirit of melancholy, this evening-twilight devil: and verily, ye higher men, it hath a longing— —Open your eyes!—it hath a longing to come NAKED, whether male or female, I do not yet know: but it cometh, it constraineth me, alas! open your wits!
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

At this moment I heard a loud thud behind me.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

Poore Lady, say no more: I had as leife trace this good action with you As that whereto I am going, and never yet Went I so willing way.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

K. had decided he would do more watching than talking, so he did not defend himself for supposedly having come late, and simply said, "Well maybe I have arrived late, I'm here now."
— from The Trial by Franz Kafka

Then he most kindly folded me in his arms: Let us, say I too, my Pamela, walk from this accursed piece of water; for I shall not, with pleasure, look upon it again, to think how near it was to have been fatal to my fair one.
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

“‘Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you think it right to charge.
— from Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Illustrated by Arthur Conan Doyle

Next morning I had a letter from Geneva.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

‘In that case, you must be too ill to see the child,’ said I; and finding me inexorable, he at length managed to ratify the agreement; and I bade Rachel send the boy.
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

Bending across the table, his face almost touching the faces of the two men, he said slowly and distinctly: "Messieurs, I have asked La Capitale to grant me three days' leave.
— from Messengers of Evil Being a Further Account of the Lures and Devices of Fantômas by Pierre Souvestre

To M. le Marquis Damaso Pareto THE MESSAGE I have always longed to tell a simple and true story, which should strike terror into two young lovers, and drive them to take refuge each in the other's heart, as two children cling together at the sight of a snake by a woodside.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

At that moment I heard a loud burst of laughter from the inner apartment, so I said, "I would sooner wait until monsieur's visitors are gone."
— from An Englishman in Paris: Notes and Recollections by Albert D. (Albert Dresden) Vandam

You must be sensible how much I have always loved you by the continual demonstrations I have given you; and I can never change my mind, for even now I love you more than ever.
— from The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Volume 01 by Anonymous

His sympathy with the poor, was, as we shall see, one of the strongest things in him, and made one of the deepest marks in his actual life; but he never thought it necessary to indulge in polite or political fictions about the superior virtue or wisdom of the working class.
— from Dr. Johnson and His Circle by John Cann Bailey

During the night it slept fitfully and in the morning it has a large stool as a result of the castor oil and there is a large quantity of blood in the stool.
— from The Eugenic Marriage, Volume 3 (of 4) A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies by W. Grant (William Grant) Hague

Charity organization—"conscience born of love" some one has well called it—is substituting its methods in high and low places for the senseless old ways.
— from The Battle with the Slum by Jacob A. (Jacob August) Riis

“I have seen, when at a distance, multitudes of men in harmony appear like a single infant.”
— from William Blake, Painter and Poet by Richard Garnett

"What do you want?" "I know that I have, as yet, in no way earned my forgiveness; may I hope, at least, in time...." "Ekh, Varvára Pávlovna,"—Lavrétzky interrupted her:—"you are a clever woman, and as I am not a fool, I know that that is quite unnecessary for you.
— from A Nobleman's Nest by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev