“But all this, if you'll excuse my saying so, is a matter of nerves, in my opinion ...
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I know some towns where a straight line drawn through the middle of the main street separates nine-tenths of the whites from nine-tenths of the blacks.
— from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois

His face appeared to me as long and large As is at Rome the pine-cone of Saint Peter's, And in proportion were the other bones; So that the margin, which an apron was Down from the middle, showed so much of him Above it, that to reach up to his hair Three Frieslanders in vain had vaunted them; For I beheld thirty great palms of him Down from the place where man his mantle buckles.
— from Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Hell by Dante Alighieri

I should be ashamed of making myself so silly if I were he!"
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

Since we shall pass near the powder-magazine it may seem suspicious to the sentinel that there are two of us.”
— from The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal

He gone, I discoursed with W. Hewer about Mercer, having a great mind she should come to us again, and instructed him what to say to her mother about it.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

But that which did please me beyond any thing in, the whole world was the wind-musique when the angel comes down, which is so sweet that it ravished me, and indeed, in a word, did wrap up my soul so that it made me really sick, just as I have formerly been when in love with my wife; that neither then, nor all the evening going home, and at home, I was able to think of any thing, but remained all night transported, so as I could not believe that ever any musick hath that real command over the soul of a man as this did upon me: and makes me resolve to practice wind-musique, and to make my wife do the like. 28th.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

“Sit here in front of me,” she said to Alan, “and you, Jeekie, sit at your lord’s side, and be silent till I bid you speak.”
— from A Yellow God: An Idol of Africa by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

"Miss Blair thought you might like a drive, Mr. Soames, so we came round to see if we could find you."
— from The Thread of Flame by Basil King

"Mike," suggested Smith carelessly, "wouldn't it pay you better to go straight?"
— from The Flaming Jewel by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers

I confess, in all Ecclesiastical History I have read of no man so spotless, though of hundreds in which the biographers have painted them as masters of perfection: but the moral tact soon feels the truth.
— from The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Volume 4 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Again, our participle in ing stands not only for the present participle of the Latin or Greek grammarians, but also for the Latin gerund, and often for the Greek infinitive used substantively; so that by this ending, the English verb is not only adjectived , but also substantived , if one may so speak.
— from The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown

To make such sandwiches attractive, fancy cutters of various shapes will be found helpful.
— from Woman's Institute Library of Cookery Volume 4: Salads and Sandwiches; Cold and Frozen Desserts; Cakes, Cookies and Puddings; Pastries and Pies by Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences