“I don’t know whether I believe it or not,” said Dr. Bull.
— from The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

Not such did Bitias and huge Pandarus prove me, and the thousand men whom on one day my conquering hand sent down to hell, shut as I was in their walls and closed in the enemy's ramparts.
— from The Aeneid of Virgil by Virgil

Let no severe duty be commanded, no impurity forbidden.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

She was not so dull but that she could perceive they were but three small rooms in a moderately well-furnished boarding-house.
— from Sister Carrie: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser

I then was a little revived, and thought, if it were no worse than working, my situation was not so desperate: but still I feared I should be put to death, the white people looked and acted, as I thought, in so savage a manner; for I had never seen among any people such instances of brutal cruelty; and this not only shewn towards us blacks, but also to some of the whites themselves.
— from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African Written By Himself by Olaudah Equiano

The spiritual excitement of the last fortnight, working upon a system affected in no slight degree by the spirituous excitement of some years, proved a little too much for him.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Weeks and months passed by, and his sister clung to her ideas, and did not sit down by the table.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

“No, sir, Dr. Becher is an Englishman, and there isn’t a man in the parish who has a better-lined waistcoat.
— from Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Illustrated by Arthur Conan Doyle

Let it get thoroughly impregnated with the paste and then transfer it carefully to its proper place on the stuff; press it closely down with the large presser, and with the little convex one rub the stuff firmly, from beneath, to make it adhere closely to the pasted pattern; small, pointed leaves and flowers will be found to need sewing down besides, as you will observe in fig.
— from Encyclopedia of Needlework by Thérèse de Dillmont

A pale little thing, with smooth ripples of fine, silky, fawn-colored hair flowing over her shoulders, must, Anne thought, be Annetta Bell, whose parents had formerly lived in the Newbridge school district, but, by reason of hauling their house fifty yards north of its old site were now in Avonlea.
— from Anne of Avonlea by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

The mountaineer did not sit down, but began pacing the floor behind Clayton.
— from A Mountain Europa by Fox, John, Jr.

I looked up the note, sat down by the table, turned out the money and counted it.
— from The Bark Covered House Or, Back In the Woods Again; Being a Graphic and Thrilling Description of Real Pioneer Life in the Wilderness of Michigan by William Nowlin

There is no past on the farm; it is all to come; no sure defeat, but always promise; no settled winter, but always the signs of coming spring.
— from The Lay of the Land by Dallas Lore Sharp

It was no sooner day, but manye poore folke came out to séeke for foode, and when Cortes had intelligence thereof, he made a greate slaughter among them, whereas at that time of vnarmed men, women, and chyldren, were slayne to the number of eyght hundred: and the Vergantines on their side made another spoyle.
— from The pleasant historie of the conquest of the VVeast India, now called new Spayne atchieued by the vvorthy Prince Hernando Cortes, marques of the Valley of Huaxacac, most delectable to reade by Francisco López de Gómara

So sweet and pleasing seemed the Song to the King (who tooke no small delight, both to heare and behold the Damosels) even as if all the Hirarchies of Angels, were descended from the Heavens to sing before him.
— from The Decameron (Day 6 to Day 10) Containing an hundred pleasant Novels by Giovanni Boccaccio

This they no sooner discovered, but they threw away their maize, with the sudden hopes of finding all things in abundance.
— from The Pirates of Panama or, The Buccaneers of America; a True Account of the Famous Adventures and Daring Deeds of Sir Henry Morgan and Other Notorious Freebooters of the Spanish Main by A. O. (Alexandre Olivier) Exquemelin

No sooner did Belisarius appear with a handful of soldiers, than courage and prosperity deserted the cause of the Vandals.
— from History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 4 by Edward Gibbon

I should not have been an American if I had not wondered at it, and whether the peers in mufti would not some day be obliged to make a habit of dressing up in their mantles and insignia on these occasions to impress the Commoners properly with a sense of difference and a reason for their staying outside.
— from An American Girl in London by Sara Jeannette Duncan