At length, having collected all our bags and all our passengers (including two or three choice spirits, who, having indulged too freely in oysters and champagne, were found lying insensible on their backs in unfrequented streets), the engines were again put in motion, and we stood off for Boston.
— from American Notes by Charles Dickens

Muse, that in the past inspired me, And with songs of love hast fired me; Go thou now to dull repose, For today in sordid prose I must earn the gold that hired me.
— from Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal, Philippine Patriot by Austin Craig

“Well, seeing you’re so pressing, perhaps I might as well, stay” said Mrs. Rachel, who had not the slightest intention of doing anything else.
— from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

She is unfortunately of a sickly constitution, which has prevented her from making that progress in many accomplishments which she could not have otherwise failed of, as I am informed by the lady who superintended her education, and who still resides with them.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

She is unfortunately of a sickly constitution, which has prevented her making that progress in many accomplishments, which she could not otherwise have failed of; as I am informed by the lady who superintended her education, and who still resides with them.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

He recognised one of the great tirades of Shakespeare's Constance and saw she had just begun the magnificent scene at the beginning of the third act of King John , in which the passionate, injured mother and widow sweeps in wild organ-tones the entire scale of her irony and wrath.
— from The Tragic Muse by Henry James

Here, perhaps, I may as well speak of the situation in which I soon afterwards found myself with the Dauphin, the confidence as to the present and the future that I enjoyed with him, and the many deliberations we had upon public affairs.
— from Court Memoirs of France Series — Complete by Various

That I, though among many others in this common concernment, interpose to your deliberations what my thoughts also are, your own judgment and the success thereof hath given me the confidence: which requests but this—that, if I have prosperously, God so favouring me, defended the public cause of this Commonwealth to foreigners, ye would not think the reason and ability whereon ye trusted once (and repent not) your whole reputation to the world either grown less by more maturity and longer study or less available in English than in another tongue: but that, if it sufficed, some years past, to convince and satisfy the unengaged of other nations in the justice of your doings, though then held paradoxal, it may as well suffice now against weaker opposition in matters (except here in England, with a spirituality of men devoted to their temporal gain) of no controversy else among Protestants.
— from The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 Narrated in Connexion with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of His Time by David Masson

“Well, since we are beginning to talk like a couple of books by a pair of priggish philosophers, I might as well say that I think sin is final so far as the domestic and social machinery of the world is concerned.
— from Mrs. Falchion, Complete by Gilbert Parker

Now, on the first occasion of the meeting of Congress since the return of peace, it is of the utmost importance to inaugurate a just policy, which shall at once be put in motion, and which shall commend itself to those who come after us for its continuance.
— from State of the Union Addresses (1790-2006) by United States. Presidents

“Well then, as I could not handle a knife or fork, or play my spinnet, or give you a box on the ear when I want pastime, I may as well say—Yes!”
— from The Comical Adventures of Twm Shon Catty (Thomas Jones, Esq.), Commonly known as the Welsh Robin Hood by T. J. Llewelyn (Thomas Jeffery Llewelyn) Prichard

"But as it is, perhaps I may as well say to you what is on my mind,—if you will permit me.
— from Molly Bawn by Duchess