I think I have one friend of my own, but am not sure; and till I am sure, I live solitary."
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

“It is well,” said Merlin, “that thou shouldst take a wife, for no man of bounteous and noble nature should live without one; but is there any lady whom thou lovest better than another?” “Yea,” said King Arthur, “I love Guinevere, the daughter of King Leodegrance, of Camelgard, who also holdeth in his house the Round Table that he had from my father Uther; and as I think, that damsel is the gentlest and the fairest lady living.” “Sir,” answered Merlin, “as for her beauty, she is one of the fairest that do live; but if ye had not loved her as ye do, I would fain have had ye choose some other who was both fair and good.
— from The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by Knowles, James, Sir

Another paper, in deadly seriousness, reproving Helen Della Delmar for her parody, said: “But unquestionably Miss Delmar wrote it in a moment of badinage and not quite with the respect that one great poet should show to another and perhaps to the greatest.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London

But finding that other expected traits and modes of behavior are not fulfilled, he is forced to throw out certain traits from the dog-meaning, while by contrast (see p. 90) certain other traits are selected and emphasized.
— from How We Think by John Dewey

Hard labour's an indifferent go-between; Your men of business are not apt to express Much passion, since the merchant-ship, the Argo, Convey'd Medea as her supercargo.
— from Don Juan by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

For Example; if a man pretend, that after certain words spoken over a peece of bread, that presently God hath made it not bread, but a God, or a man, or both, and neverthelesse it looketh still as like bread as ever it did; there is no reason for any man to think it really done; nor consequently to fear him, till he enquire of God, by his Vicar, or Lieutenant, whether it be done, or not.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

The arms of the Royal Burgh of Montrose (Forfarshire) afford an official instance of another variety in the way of a compartment, which is a fixed matter of blazon and not depending upon artistic fancy.
— from A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies

I therefore carried my own bed, and now I was forbidden to use it.
— from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. (Harriet Ann) Jacobs

The fault is in the minds of both, and neither of them will think so; so that the wound (not permitted to be probed) is but skinned over, and rankles still at the bottom, and at last breaks out with more pain and anguish than before.
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

He being gone I to my office all the evening, doing business there till bedtime, it being now my manner since my wife is come to spend too much of my daytime with her and the workmen and do my office business at night, which must not be after the work of the house is done.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

No man of distinction, no man of birth, and no man of property was ever engaged in those coffee-house conspiracies; their Jaffiers and Pierres were cobblers and tinkers, with a sprinkling of petty pamphleteers, and ruined declaimers.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 378, April, 1847 by Various

Feuillot, and figure upon cambric and muslin, and make out bills, and nurse old nuns, all the days of your life.
— from Tales and Novels — Volume 06 by Maria Edgeworth

"They were turned by a horse or mule, or by a number of men.
— from The Young Deliverers of Pleasant Cove The Pleasant Cove Series by Elijah Kellogg

Good-byes were called to Mrs. Hopkins, and to the mothers of Bob and Ned, who had called at Jerry’s house to see the start.
— from The Motor Boys Under the Sea; or, From Airship to Submarine by Clarence Young

I beg you, therefore, not to alter your plan in any part of it on my account, but permit me to pursue mine of being absolutely neutral.
— from The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 2 (of 9) Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private by Thomas Jefferson

I'm quite above board, Mr. Caldigate, and in what I say I mean to stick to my own business and not go beyond it.
— from John Caldigate by Anthony Trollope

This person did all in his power to obtain her freedom, but did not succeed; he purchased her, and immediately had a deed of manumission made out by a notary-public.
— from Travels in Brazil by Henry Koster

As a matter of fact no one who is not intimately acquainted with the coast should take a boat out of the harbour without [Pg 25] an experienced man on board, and no amateurs should attempt unaided, to sail the lugsail boats in general use among the fishermen.
— from The Cornish Riviera by Sidney Heath

" "I guess I slapped your back when you got kinder excited in the——" "Seventh innings, with the score three to nothing for Montreal, Torontos with two men on bases and nobody out"—the judge was talking rapidly now—"big Bill Hannigan at the bat, and——" "What did Hannigan do to the ball," William broke in, "but slam it over the fence for a home run, bringing in the two on bases and tying the score!
— from William Adolphus Turnpike by William Banks

I wish I had him here for a model; my own boys are nothing but angles.
— from The Lovels of Arden by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon