Suddenly, as I was taking up a fresh sheet of notepaper, I heard a low sound, the first sound that, since we had been shut up together, had come to my ears in the dim stillness of the room.
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

In the Republic he represents man as freely choosing his own lot in a state prior to birth—a conception which, if taken literally, would still leave him subject to the dominion of necessity in his after life; in the Statesman he supposes the human race to be preserved in the world only by a divine interposition; while in the Timaeus the supreme God commissions the inferior deities to avert from him all but self-inflicted evils—words which imply that all the evils of men are really self-inflicted.
— from Timaeus by Plato

One is often strangely placed in this world; but now I have at least managed to get one of my people within the pale, and indeed into a buttonhole!"
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lief be a condemn'd man.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

This night I had a letter that Sir G. Carteret would be in towne to-morrow, which did much surprize me.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

I must, indeed, say, I never saw a fonder couple; but what is their fondness good for, but to torment each other?” “Indeed, mamma,” cries Nancy, “I have always looked on my cousin Anderson” (for that was her name) “as one of the happiest of w
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

“I swear to you, noble knight,” said the Jew “by all which I believe, and by all which we believe in common—-” “Perjure not thyself,” said the Norman, interrupting him, “and let not thine obstinacy seal thy doom, until thou hast seen and well considered the fate that awaits thee.
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott

Beside, he's busy at his hop-yards now; I had a letter from him.
— from The Alchemist by Ben Jonson

No, I had a lofty way of getting out of it all.
— from Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The next instant, however, a light shone through the glass door, and a waiter appearing, approached the step of the carriage, saying, "The gentleman told me to tell you, Sir Arthur, that he would be back in a few minutes."
— from The Convict: A Tale by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

Summer or winter, nobody seeks me in vain; for all day long I am seen at the busiest corner, just above the market, stretching out my arms to rich and poor alike; and at night I hold a lantern over my head, to show where I am, and to keep people out of the gutters.
— from McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader by William Holmes McGuffey

Now Ingeborg had always loved him and she agreed to be betrothed to him, and taking leave of her, Frithiof went with all haste to tell her brothers.
— from A Hardy Norseman by Edna Lyall

"No, Rafael; a thousand times no; I have a little conscience left!
— from The Torrent (Entre Naranjos) by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez

Hasn’t that Russian Johnny come across with anything more about the high Muck-a-Muck of the bunch and where he hangs out?” “No, I had another long session with him, but he swears he knows nothing about it
— from The Radio Detectives by A. Hyatt (Alpheus Hyatt) Verrill

Nothing in his account leads one to think of any energetic preaching during the visit, and the necessity of finding some way of excluding Jerusalem from the Apostle's expression is simply thrust upon apologists by the account in Acts.
— from Supernatural Religion, Vol. 3 (of 3) An Inquiry into the Reality of Divine Revelation by Walter Richard Cassels

Now, I have a little secret fund at my disposal.
— from Guy Garrick by Arthur B. (Arthur Benjamin) Reeve

"In this way, by my force of character, and my knowledge of human nature, I had at last cleared my path of obstacles.
— from Stromboli and the Guns by Francis Henry Gribble

The Orchid Family of over 15,000 species is second only to the Composite Family in size, yet only three species of three genera are native in Hawaii, a land connected in thought with an exuberance of gay orchids.
— from Hawaii National Park: A Guide for the Haleakala Section, Island of Maui, Hawaii by George Cornelius Ruhle