She felt an anguish at her heart, which nothing relieved, and which augmented every day; she no longer knew whether it was winter or summer, whether it was raining or shining, whether the birds were singing, whether it was the season for dahlias or daisies, whether the Luxembourg was more charming than the Tuileries, whether the linen which the laundress brought home was starched too much or not enough, whether Toussaint had done “her marketing” well or ill; and she remained dejected, absorbed, attentive to but a single thought, her eyes vague and staring as when one gazes by night at a black and fathomless spot where an apparition has vanished.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

I was forced to make my way, hatchet in hand, and returned at night exhausted with the heat and fatigue.
— from Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China (Siam), Cambodia, and Laos (Vol. 1 of 2) During the Years 1858, 1859, and 1860 by Henri Mouhot

As Sir Roger is Landlord to the whole Congregation, he keeps them in very good Order, and will suffer no Body to sleep in it besides himself; for if by chance he has been surprized into a short Nap at Sermon, upon recovering out of it he stands up and looks about him, and if he sees any Body else nodding, either wakes them himself, or sends his Servant to them.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

Above two hundred and fifty years after the death of Trajan, the senate, in pouring out the customary acclamations on the accession of a new emperor, wished that he might surpass the felicity of Augustus, and the virtue of Trajan.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

He nodded energetically when Tommy had finished.
— from The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie

She found the servants' hall a more amusing place than the invalid's chamber and just now everybody wanted to hear the news from up-stairs.
— from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

If we had done so, not even would they have disputed that the weaker must give way to the stronger.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

He could not exist without those honeyed kisses, and it was awkward to kiss her before Ivan Petrovitch.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Gilbert did not even write to her, as she thought he might have done.
— from Anne of the Island by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

Bahrdt and Venturini are right in feeling that the connexion of events in the life of Jesus has to be discovered; the Gospels give only a series of occurrences, and offer no explanation why they happened just as they did.
— from The Quest of the Historical Jesus A Critical Study of its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede by Albert Schweitzer

The Spaniards push'd hard their petition For money to buy ammunition, But they met with a balk, for Whigs are all talk, With nought else would they help their petition.
— from The Choice Humorous Works, Ludicrous Adventures, Bons Mots, Puns, and Hoaxes of Theodore Hook by Theodore Edward Hook

He had a genius for friendship, and gave himself without stint to his friends; and those who knew him said that none ever went to him for consolation without returning with gladness in their hearts.
— from Ruysbroeck by Evelyn Underhill

He may be wounded, but he wounded me; No Englishman was there, he was alone.
— from Ponteach The Savages of America by Robert Rogers

But the bearers found it impossible to remove the bier more than two thousands ells from the original grave; not even with the help of numerous draught-animals could it be urged a single step further.
— from The Legends of the Jews — Volume 4 by Louis Ginzberg

They may not stay longer than twenty-four hours, a case of absolute necessity excepted, within the harbours of Port Said and Suez, and twenty-four hours must intervene between the departure from those harbours of a belligerent man-of-war and a vessel of the enemy.
— from International Law. A Treatise. Volume 1 (of 2) Peace. Second Edition by L. (Lassa) Oppenheim

The composition of a sermon was never easy work to him.
— from Leading Articles on Various Subjects by Hugh Miller

Mrs. Wheeler, always absent-minded, and now absorbed in her cherishing care of the visitor, did not notice Claude's scornful silences until Mahailey, whom such things never escaped, whispered to her over the stove one day: "Mr. Claude, he don't like the preacher.
— from One of Ours by Willa Cather

The action of hauling in the aftmost clue of a sail to give it greater power of turning the vessel; thus, if the mizen or after sails are flatted in, it is to carry the stern to leeward, and the head to windward; and if, on the contrary, the head-sails are flatted in, the intention is to make the ship fall off when, by design or accident, she has come so near as to make the sails shiver; hence flatten in forward is the order to haul in the jib and foretop-mast staysail-sheets towards the middle of the ship, and haul forward the fore-bowline; this operation is seldom necessary except when the helm has not sufficient government of the ship, as in variable winds or inattentive steerage.
— from The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by W. H. (William Henry) Smyth