There are moments when the inner life actually “pays,” when years of self-scrutiny, conducted for no ulterior motive, are suddenly of practical use.
— from Howards End by E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster

I know that there was no excuse for me; I do not understand myself, and since that day I feel as if I were mad.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

He was trying for the fourth time, and would have strung it had not Ulysses made a sign to check him in spite of all his eagerness.
— from The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original by Homer

“Not upon my account,” says the lady; “I will have no person disturbed for me.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

Oh, these people did not persist in trying to make me understand them, they loved me without that, but I knew that they would never understand me, and so I hardly spoke to them about our earth.
— from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

she said, “I did once, but it's no use; men are strongest, and if they are cruel and have no feeling, there is nothing that we can do, but just bear it—bear it on and on to the end.
— from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

For example, suppose we had the Pair of Propositions “No gluttons are healthy; No unhealthy men are strong”.
— from Symbolic Logic by Lewis Carroll

57 Then when I call'd upon thee, thou drew'st nere Unto mee, and said'st unto mee, do not feare.
— from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts by John Donne

She too, then, had to give her news, and to receive messages for the Derbyshire folk whom Robin wished to greet; and it was not until Mistress Alice slipped out of the room that she uttered a word of what she had been hoping all day she might have an opportunity to say.
— from Come Rack! Come Rope! by Robert Hugh Benson

Subscriptions for objects of public charity or disbursements, such as an inundation, a bad harvest, bursting of dikes, and other similar things which the government must look after, are not unfrequently made a source of revenue to the incumbents by requiring much more than is needed; those who subscribe are rewarded by an empty title, a peacock’s feather, or employment in some insignificant formality.
— from The Middle Kingdom, Volume 1 (of 2) A Survey of the Geography, Government, Literature, Social Life, Arts, and History of the Chinese Empire and its Inhabitants by S. Wells (Samuel Wells) Williams

Consider, I pray you, therefore, what is to be done, and how unfit it will be in respect of my poor self, and how unacceptable to her Majesty, and how advantageous to enemies that will seek holes in my coat, if I should take so great a name upon me, and so little power.
— from PG Edition of Netherlands series — Complete by John Lothrop Motley

“No use making a scene in a fifty-cent café,” she told him, bitterly, “but I’m plenty good looking 37 enough to have a real man buy me a real dinner with a taxi and wine and violets as extras.
— from The Gorgeous Girl by Nalbro Bartley

She naturally looked up to find out who was coming in, and when she seen the kid, all at once she give a scream, dropped the dish-cloth she had in her hand, made a break for Paul, throw'd her arms around him, nigh upsetting me, and says, while she was a sobbing and taking on dreadful,— "'My boy!
— from The Old Santa Fe Trail: The Story of a Great Highway by Henry Inman

At one time something came near us, making a splashing like that of a canoe or hippopotamus; thinking it to be the Makololo, we got up, listened, and shouted; then discharged a gun several times; but the noise continued without intermission for an hour.
— from Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa by David Livingstone

Let us see what my clients did. Do not understand me as saying that because my clients have done nothing the other defendants have.
— from The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 10 (of 12) Dresden Edition—Legal by Robert Green Ingersoll