Every now and then she stopped to listen; she fancied she heard a moan.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Other people sat on the benches and green chairs, but they were nearly always the same, Sunday after Sunday, and—Miss Brill had often noticed—there was something funny about nearly all of them.
— from The Garden Party, and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

When you will not fly into a passion people know you are stronger than they are, because you are strong enough to hold in your rage, and they are not, and they say stupid things they wish they hadn't said afterward.
— from A Little Princess Being the whole story of Sara Crewe now told for the first time by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Waked this morning by 4 o’clock by my wife to call the mayds to their wash, and what through my sleeping so long last night and vexation for the lazy sluts lying so long again and their great wash, neither my wife nor I could sleep one winke after that time till day, and then I rose and by coach (taking Captain Grove with me and three bottles of Tent, which I sent to Mrs. Lane by my promise on Saturday night last) to White Hall, and there with the rest of our company to the Duke and did our business, and thence to the Tennis Court till noon, and there saw several great matches played, and so by invitation to St. James’s; where, at Mr. Coventry’s chamber, I dined with my Lord Barkeley, Sir G. Carteret, Sir Edward Turner, Sir Ellis Layton, and one Mr. Seymour, a fine gentleman; were admirable good discourse of all sorts, pleasant and serious.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

These changes in the Heav’ns, though slow, produc’d Like change on Sea and Land, sideral blast, Vapour, and Mist, and Exhalation hot, Corrupt and Pestilent: Now from the North Of Norumbega , and the Samoed shoar Bursting thir brazen Dungeon, armd with ice And snow and haile and stormie gust and flaw, Boreas and Caecias and Argestes loud And Thrascias rend the Woods and Seas upturn; With adverse blast up-turns them from the South Notus and Afer black with thundrous Clouds From Serraliona ; thwart of these as fierce Forth rush the Levant and the Ponent VVindes Eurus and Zephir with thir lateral noise, Sirocco , and Libecchio .
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton

“She has told me nothing about the satisfaction she is thinking of, and which she possibly feels quite sure of attaining; but I think I can guess what it will be namely, a formal declaration of love; and I suppose he will expiate his crime by becoming her lover, and doubtless this will be their wedding night.”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

We were busy in making preparations for our departure from Nohcacab, and, though strongly solicited, I was the only one of our party able to attend.
— from Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vol. I. by John L. Stephens

But I, like a fool, carved a providence for my own ease, to die in my nest, and to sleep still till my grey hairs, and to lie on the sunny side of the mountain, in my ministry at Anwoth.
— from Letters of Samuel Rutherford (Third Edition) by Samuel Rutherford

The best biblical students of the so- called orthodox world now admit that several stories were united to make the gospel of Saint Luke; that Hebrews is a selection from many fragments, and 144 that no human being, not afflicted with delirium tremens, can understand the book of Revelation.
— from The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Complete Contents Dresden Edition—Twelve Volumes by Robert Green Ingersoll

To prepare dried corn for the table wash well, soak over night, and then steam slowly on the back of the kitchen stove from morning till late afternoon, with salt to taste.
— from The Library of Work and Play: Outdoor Work by Mary Rogers Miller

It now and then seemed strange to Hope, his wife and sister—now and then, and for a passing moment—that while their hearts were full of motion and their hands occupied with the vicissitudes of their lot, the little world around them, which was wont to busy itself so strenuously with their affairs, should work its yearly round as if it heeded them not.
— from Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau

In a letter to Washington at the same time he gives utterance to his aspiration, that, for the good of the world, the North and the South should gradually adopt the principles on which the Independence and the Liberty of the United States have been happily founded.
— from Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 07 (of 20) by Charles Sumner

"No matter what I could do, Edwin; I do not, and that should satisfy you."
— from When Knighthood Was in Flower or, the Love Story of Charles Brandon and Mary Tudor the King's Sister, and Happening in the Reign of His August Majesty King Henry the Eighth by Charles Major

She's got some of the queerest notions, and then she's so high-strung.
— from Maggie Miller: The Story of Old Hagar's Secret by Mary Jane Holmes