And, lost in one of those profound meditations upon life and death and luxury which even the worst novelists must from time to time indulge in, I forgot everything save the idea of the significance of the train rushing, so complete and so self-contained, through unknown and uncared-for darkness.
— from Paris Nights, and Other Impressions of Places and People by Arnold Bennett

"There is some queer old tradition extant about it," he said, "to the effect that the bride of a Catheron who does not wear it will lead a most unhappy life and die a most unhappy death.
— from A Terrible Secret: A Novel by May Agnes Fleming

If you were to ask me for an analysis of this happiness, I think I should reply that it resulted from that perfect freedom from all care which only a true nomad ever enjoys, from the constant chain of adventures and incidents that surrounded us, from the strange scenery weird and wild, from the beauty of the sky night and morning, and, above all, from the perfect, the bounding health we enjoyed, health that made us laugh at danger and consider troubles, in whatever shape they came, trifles light as air.
— from Wild Life in the Land of the Giants: A Tale of Two Brothers by Gordon Stables

The hours and minutes that I pass in this situation are like years in 234 my unfortunate life, and dangerously aggravate my son’s precarious state of health.
— from Memoirs of the life, exile, and conversations of the Emperor Napoleon. (Vol. IV) by Las Cases, Emmanuel-Auguste-Dieudonné, comte de

All the life that I looked back upon seemed muddled and mixed up, like a dream; and I could only think of the little sister I'd said good-bye to, aboard the Ventur'some forty years before.
— from Aurora Floyd, Vol. 2 Fifth Edition by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

Mother adored me, dressed me up like a doll, and never forced me to work; I could do just as I liked.
— from The Storm by Aleksandr Nikolaevich Ostrovsky

The woods came to meet us like a dark army; the fir-trees spread out their wings like large birds; the birches looked like maidens.
— from In the World by Maksim Gorky

These disposed in a certain number on many unequal lines, are described also with a pen on paper; and the person who practices divination by this art is called Rammal .—D'Herbelot, art.
— from The Arabian Nights Entertainments by Anonymous