She read no books but her father’s—a serious man who had no novels in his library, and she was longing to read some tales of romance.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Don't you feel as if you could make a show of remaining in it, Venus, till I had time to turn myself round?' Venus naturally inquired how long Mr Boffin thought it might take him to turn himself round?
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

Yet never in his life would he forget that pitiful sound of sobbing, and the feeling that the whole awful wilderness of woods listened....
— from The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood

I had no idea how long he might be, but I sat stolidly puffing at my pipe and skipping over the pages of
— from A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

It was not in his line—not exactly.
— from The Forsyte Saga, Volume I. The Man Of Property by John Galsworthy

But he left a blank space for the remainder of Philemon, hoping doubtless hereafter to find a Greek MS from which he could fill it in; and he likewise gave the title of the epistle which he found next in his Latin copy, in Greek as well as in Latin.
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon A revised text with introductions, notes and dissertations by J. B. (Joseph Barber) Lightfoot

Arriving at Razgoulyai, he turned to the right and began to stride down streets that he had never in his life been down before.
— from The Bet, and other stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Her father reappears: "If you are going to have the pictures taken, you had better all hurry!" "Oh, Mary," shouts some one, "what have you on that is Something old, something new, Something borrowed, something blue, And a lucky sixpence in your shoe!" "Let me see," says the bride, "'old,' I have old lace; 'new,' I have lots of new!
— from Etiquette by Emily Post

Emily enquired who the cavalier was, that accompanied the Count, and how Montoni received them; but Annette could not inform her. 'Ludovico,' she added, 'had just been to call Signor Montoni's valet, that he might tell him they were arrived, when I met him.' Emily sat musing, for some time, and then her anxiety was so much increased, that she desired Annette would go to the servants' hall, where it was possible she might hear something of the Count's intention, respecting his stay at the castle.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

In vain he protested his innocence, and offered to call the Dominie and Doctor Critchel to testify that he had never in his life wronged any man out of a shilling.
— from The Von Toodleburgs Or, The History of a Very Distinguished Family by F. Colburn (Francis Colburn) Adams

If now of those holy men who consorted with the Nazarene in his life-time, one could come into the desert and preach to us of him that was crucified there would remain not one of us all who should not believe."
— from Stephen: A Soldier of the Cross by Florence Morse Kingsley

Of criticism that deserves the name, Shelley got absolutely nothing in his lifetime.
— from Shelley by John Addington Symonds

If you can, when the full moon shines sit quite naked in her light and listen to it; every night the noise will become more distinct, and then thou wilt hear the fairies talking plainly enough.
— from The Gypsies by Charles Godfrey Leland

I lay in bed wondering what she would be up to in the next number; I have lost trout because when they nibbled my mind was wandering with her; my early life was embittered by her not arriving regularly on the first of the month.
— from Margaret Ogilvy by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie

If any could be shewn, it must have been for the freedom used by the author, and not for any novelty in his lampoon.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Volume 01: Julius Caesar by Suetonius

Finally, when he bade farewell to his host, St. Aldegonde assured him that he “never in his life made so good a dinner, and that Pinto had never been so rich.”
— from Lothair by Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield

“Now, a story, a story,” he entreated, and she was rich in tales from Scripture history and legends of the Saints, or she would sing her sweet monastic hymns and chants, as he nestled in her lap.
— from Grisly Grisell; Or, The Laidly Lady of Whitburn: A Tale of the Wars of the Roses by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge

In his earlier work Mr. Woodberry occasionally shows the Shelley influence in technique and theme, but not in his later verse.
— from The Younger American Poets by Jessie Belle Rittenhouse

Not insanely happy like some of the other women, but quietly, comfily happy.
— from The Tree of Heaven by May Sinclair