"You refused an honest prince; you did not appreciate the rose and the nightingale; but you did not mind kissing a swineherd for his toys; you have no one but yourself to blame!"
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

But I pray you, do not accept this law upon my say-so; but diligently examine for yourself.
— from What Is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain

“Pollyanna, you did not answer my question.
— from Pollyanna by Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter

Then she said in a solemn tone: “You are to read it to-morrow; till then, I pray you, do not ask me a single question.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Perhaps you did not approve of the ‘partie carree’ with our young friend, and you may not have objected out of mere politeness.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Did you think I ought?” “Perhaps, sir,” said Fanny, wearied at last into speaking—“perhaps, sir, I thought it was a pity you did not always know yourself as well as you seemed to do at that moment.”
— from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

It was at Kensington Palace too, and perhaps in this very room, that took place their famous interview, one April afternoon in the year 1710, when the only reply which the great Duchess Sarah could get to her inquiring entreaties was the phrase “You desired no answer
— from Kensington Palace, the birthplace of the Queen being an historical guide to the state rooms, pictures and gardens by Ernest Law

"That seems reasonable," was his comment, "but what I can not understand is why, on your return to Paris, you did not at once report yourself.
— from For Love of a Bedouin Maid by Voleur

`You have done far more than I could have expected, my wife,' I replied, `and provided you do not ask me to give up the sea altogether, I most willingly agree to your request, and will go to Falconhurst as soon as the raft is unloaded, and everything safely arranged here.'
— from Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss

In the first place you do not alter people, and in the second, by being anxious as to things, you put an occult obstacle in the way of what you want done.
— from Letters That Have Helped Me by Julia Wharton Lewis Campbell Ver Planck Keightley

You keep on goin' down this trail, compadre , an' maybe you'll wind up with a spade pattin' you down nice an' smooth."
— from Rebel Spurs by Andre Norton

providing you do not ask me to play.
— from A Canadian Bankclerk by Jack Preston

Ladies, and lordlings, there's a slight banquet stays within for you; please you draw near, and accost it.
— from The Poetaster by Ben Jonson

Industrial Colonels, Workmasters, Task-masters, Life-commanders, equitable as Rhadamanthus and inflexible as he: such, I perceive, you do need; and such, you being once put under law as soldiers are, will be discoverable for you.
— from Latter-Day Pamphlets by Thomas Carlyle