I can’t understand how mother is so long-suffering.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Once more I should like to know where you 'd have been if it had n't been for me!
— from The Silver Box: A Comedy in Three Acts by John Galsworthy

for Beauty stands 220 In the admiration only of weak minds Led captive; cease to admire, and all her Flumes Fall flat and shrink into a trivial toy, At every sudden slighting quite abasht: Therefore with manlier objects we must try His constancy, with such as have more shew Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praise; Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wreck'd; Or that which only seems to satisfie Lawful desires of Nature, not beyond; 230 And now I know he hungers where no food Is to be found, in the wide Wilderness; The rest commit to me, I shall let pass No advantage, and his strength as oft assay. He ceas'd, and heard thir grant in loud acclaim; Then forthwith to him takes a chosen band Of Spirits likest to himself in guile To be at hand, and at his beck appear, If cause were to unfold some active Scene Of various persons each to know his part; 240 Then to the Desert takes with these his flight; Where still from shade to shade the Son of God After forty days fasting had remain'd, Now hungring first, and to himself thus said.
— from The Poetical Works of John Milton by John Milton

It is strange how he and every body do now-a-days reflect upon Oliver, and commend him, what brave things he did, and made all the neighbour princes fear him; while here a prince, come in with all the love and prayers and good liking of his people, who have given greater signs of loyalty and willingness to serve him with their estates than ever was done by any people, hath lost all so soon, that it is a miracle what way a man could devise to lose so much in so little time.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Your dear love, Bathsheba, is such a vast thing beside your pity, that the loss of your pity as well as your love is no great addition to my sorrow, nor does the gain of your pity make it sensibly less.
— from Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Do not thy graceful friend forget, But tell me, is she living yet?
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

He repeated the same lesson to me again, and enforced it and owned, that he was angry with me in earnest, just then; though more with himself, afterwards, for being so: But when, Pamela, said he, you wanted to transfer all my displeasure upon yourself, it was so much braving me with your merit, as if I must soon end my anger, if placed there; or it was making it so light to you, that I was truly displeased: for, continued he, I cannot bear that you should wish, on any occasion whatever, to have me angry with you, or not to value my displeasure as the heaviest misfortune that could befall you.
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

I'm sure I wish it would, for if I can't be an artist myself, I should like to be able to help those who are," said Amy, smiling, as if the part of Lady Bountiful would suit her better than that of a poor drawing-teacher.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

Accordingly she sat sorrowful and in confusion, framing herself so hypocritically and angrily, that the sorrow, which was really for her being disappointed of her lust, might appear to be for the attempt upon her chastity; so that when her husband came home, and was disturbed at the sight of her and inquired what was the cause of the disorder she was in, she began to accuse Joseph: and, "O husband," said she, "mayst thou not live a day longer if thou dost not punish the wicked slave who has desired to defile thy bed; who has neither minded who he was when he came to our house, so as to behave himself with modesty; nor has he been mindful of what favors he had received from thy bounty [as he must be an ungrateful man indeed, unless he, in every respect, carry himself in a manner agreeable to us]: this man, I say, laid a private design to abuse thy wife, and this at the time of a festival, observing when thou wouldst be absent.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

'It's no use my trying to say how much I shall like it,' said Margaret, through her tears.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

"This work is done very neatly," said Mrs. Page, "and here is some more I should like to have finished in the same way."
— from The May Flower, and Miscellaneous Writings by Harriet Beecher Stowe

" CHAPTER XXVI HEARTS MEET IN SIGHTLESS LAND
— from The Rosary by Florence L. (Florence Louisa) Barclay

The reader will find a further general account of these matters in Sachs' Lectures on the Physiology of Plants , especially Lectures I. and XII., Engl.
— from Disease in Plants by H. Marshall (Harry Marshall) Ward

He was just as liberal with what he had as before, indeed it was his nature to be free with his money or with that of others, and he could lend or spend a dollar with an air that made it seem like ten.
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Charles Dudley Warner

And what's more it seems likely I can't stand that noise you keep on a-makin'.
— from The Loves of Ambrose by Margaret Vandercook

All day they sailed: at nightfall the pleasant land- breeze died, The blackening sky, at midnight, its starry lights denied, And far and low the thunder of tempest prophesied.
— from Barclay of Ury, and other poems Part 3 From Volume I of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier by John Greenleaf Whittier

"Then," says he, "just ask Mr. Seward not to write so many letters to me every week; because when my mail is so large, I don't have any time to attend to my family.
— from The Orpheus C. Kerr Papers, Series 3 by R. H. (Robert Henry) Newell

If you refuse to marry him now at the last moment, I shall lose the Isleworth estates.
— from Dawn by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard