And my master said, hearing part of the last sentence, What's the pretty subject, that my Pamela is displaying so sweetly her talents upon?
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

No.... Cut out my tongue and I would protest in dumb show; shut me up in a cellar—I will shout from it to be heard half a mile away, or I will starve myself to death that they may have another weight on their black consciences.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

“Good theology, Tom; better than Dr. B. preaches, I dare swear,” said St. Clare.
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

How many hours, forenoons and afternoons—how many exhilarating night-times I have had—perhaps June or July, in cooler air-riding the whole length of Broadway, listening to some yarn, (and the most vivid yarns ever spun, and the rarest mimicry)—or perhaps I declaiming some stormy passage from Julius Caesar or Richard, (you could roar as loudly as you chose in that heavy, dense, uninterrupted street-bass.)
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

I was wounded almost to tears; perhaps I did shed some indeed.
— from The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“I hope they won’t pull it down,” she said; “I’m extremely fond of it.”
— from The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 1 by Henry James

The Duke received me well, and invited me to come and see him at Paris; I did so several times; although this great acquaintance, of which I shall frequently have occasion to speak, was never of the most trifling utility to me.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

A sudden slice changes the whole plate, it does so suddenly.
— from Tender Buttons Objects—Food—Rooms by Gertrude Stein

Is there not in every human soul, was there not in the soul of Jean Valjean in particular, a first spark, a divine element, incorruptible in this world, immortal in the other, which good can develop, fan, ignite, and make to glow with splendor, and which evil can never wholly extinguish? Grave and obscure questions, to the last of which every physiologist would probably have responded no, and that without hesitation, had he beheld at Toulon, during the hours of repose, which were for Jean Valjean hours of reverie, this gloomy galley-slave, seated with folded arms upon the bar of some capstan, with the end of his chain thrust into his pocket to prevent its dragging, serious, silent, and thoughtful, a pariah of the laws which regarded the man with wrath, condemned by civilization, and regarding heaven with severity.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

The letter, in which this proposal is declined, shows so much of the writer’s real self that we quote a portion of it.
— from Sketches and Studies by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The operation should be performed in dilute solution (see p. 111 ).
— from A Text-book of Paper-making by C. F. (Charles Frederick) Cross

“Wishin' I hadn't—” Mrs. Berry took him up, and mindful of the good rule to begin at the beginning, pursued: “I dare say, Sir Austin, you don't remember me, and I little thought when last we parted our meeting 'd be like this.
— from The Ordeal of Richard Feverel — Complete by George Meredith

To a retired officer of artillery who had kept himself acquainted with military progress, it did seem strange that after the Balkan War of 1912-13, which had clearly demonstrated the value of high-explosive ammunition with field-guns, the War Office should continue to depend entirely upon shrapnel for our 18-pounders, instead of following the example of all other European countries (p. 201) that spent any considerable sums on their armies.
— from Experiences of a Dug-out, 1914-1918 by Callwell, C. E. (Charles Edward), Sir

On May 14th, 1616, after a voyage in which nothing worthy of remark occurred, the two captains penetrated into Davis' Strait, sighted Cape Henderson's Hope, the extreme point formerly reached by Davis, and ascended as high as 72° 40' to the Women's Island, thus named after some Esquimaux females whom they met with.
— from Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 1. The Exploration of the World by Jules Verne