At night I made my supper of three of the turtle’s eggs, which I roasted in the ashes, and ate, as we call it, in the shell, and this was the first bit of meat I had ever asked God’s blessing to, that I could remember, in my whole life.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

"Then have you noticed in me much such 'secretiveness and reserve'?"
— from Fathers and Sons by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

Nor need I mention my successes among the fairer portion of the creation.
— from Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray

“Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco.”—Virgil.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I was left a helpless widow, with a daughter on my hands growing up in beauty like the sea-foam; at length, however, as I had the character of being an excellent needlewoman, my lady the duchess, then lately married to my lord the duke, offered to take me with her to this kingdom of Aragon, and my daughter also, and here as time went by my daughter grew up and with her all the graces in the world; she sings like a lark, dances quick as thought, foots it like a gipsy, reads and writes like a schoolmaster, and does sums like a miser; of her neatness I say nothing, for the running water is not purer, and her age is now, if my memory serves me, sixteen years five months and three days, one more or less.
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Her name is Miss Muriel Stacy.
— from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

Once or twice there really had been reason for this, but, seeing how nervous it made Max, Scoodrach kept it up, taking a malicious delight in ducking his head, rubbing his nose, and fidgeting the tyro, who would gladly have laid down his rod but for the encouraging remarks made by Kenneth.
— from Three Boys; Or, The Chiefs of the Clan Mackhai by George Manville Fenn

His name, if my memory serves me correctly, was Antonelli.
— from The Secrets of the Great City A Work Descriptive of the Virtues and the Vices, the Mysteries, Miseries and Crimes of New York City by James Dabney McCabe

(Cowperwood was thinking that while this might not have a very soothing effect on the old contractor's point of view, nevertheless it must make some appeal to his sense of the possible or necessary.
— from The Financier: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser

But ere my conference was with Arnold clos'd, The day began to dawn: I then was told That till the night I must my safety seek In close concealment.
— from André by William Dunlap

“What else was there?” “I’ve nothing in my mind,” said Joel, and shook his head.
— from All the Brothers Were Valiant by Ben Ames Williams

To my mind to be astonished at nothing is much more stupid than to be astonished at everything.
— from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I am sure if anything broke out now in my mother’s state of health it would be fatal.”
— from Tales and Novels — Volume 10 Helen by Maria Edgeworth