Leaning on the high back of Christie's chair, David watched the reflection of her face in the long mirror; for she listened to the music with downcast eyes, unconscious what eloquent expressions were passing over her countenance.
— from Work: A Story of Experience by Louisa May Alcott

A man who dies, even under the most tragic circumstances, does not excite horror; a field of battle is not horrible; blood is not horrible; the vilest crimes are rarely horrible.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

This cold officer upon a monument, who dropped epithets unconcernedly down, would be finer as a dead man, he thought.
— from The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War by Stephen Crane

In vain I viewed, and called yet louder, but none appeared to my assistance but Antonet and Brilliard , to torture me with dull excuses, urging a thousand feigned and frivolous reasons to satisfy my fears: but I, who loved, who doted even to madness, by nature soft, and timorous as a dove, and fearful as a criminal escaped, that dreads each little noise, fancied their eyes and guilty looks confessed the treasons of their hearts and tongues, while they, more kind than true, strove to convince my killing doubts, protested that you would return by night, and feigned a likely story to deceive.
— from Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister by Aphra Behn

Stealing from the Monsters was dangerous enough under the best of conditions.
— from The Men in the Walls by William Tenn

In our part of the line at Fromelles, however, at that time the Germans had succeeded in exploding many mines with disastrous effect under our trenches, with the resulting loss of life of many infantrymen and some engineers, and in our early operations they gave us much cause for concern.
— from Fighting the Boche Underground by H. D. (Harry Davis) Trounce

Yet it was not singular, however, that the Prince should read with regret the somewhat insincere casuistry with which Saint Aldegonde sought to persuade himself and his fellow-countrymen that a reconciliation with the monarch was desirable, even upon unworthy terms.
— from PG Edition of Netherlands series — Complete by John Lothrop Motley

The career of such a man will depend entirely upon circumstances; because his standard of virtue is not where it should be, within his own mind, but without.
— from Essays on Modern Novelists by William Lyon Phelps

We did not know, could not understand that it is man who does evil, using God's name to cover his wicked deeds.
— from Letters of a Javanese Princess by Raden Adjeng Kartini

Bassett, Marcus, Wallingford, ” Discharged, enlisted U. S. A., Dec. 2, 1862.
— from The Old Sixth Regiment, Its War Record, 1861-5 by Charles K. Cadwell

We know now that they were merely a trick of the Queen-mother’s to frighten Elizabeth into helping poor Alençon in the Netherlands, the only really serious part of them being De Maineville’s secret mission, which depended entirely upon Guise.
— from The Great Lord Burghley: A study in Elizabethan statecraft by Martin A. S. (Martin Andrew Sharp) Hume

At one time 14,000 men were directly employed upon the railways in Upper Canada alone.
— from The Railway Builders: A Chronicle of Overland Highways by Oscar D. (Oscar Douglas) Skelton