There is something more ridiculous coming:—Suppose, further, that in sober earnest I, having persuaded you of this, went and composed a speech in honour of an ass, whom I entitled a horse beginning: 'A noble animal and a most useful possession, especially in war, and you may get on his back and fight, and he will carry baggage or anything.' PHAEDRUS: How ridiculous! SOCRATES:
— from Phaedrus by Plato

Beware, my love, I conjure you, of that self-delusion, which has been fatal to the peace of so many persons; beware of priding yourself on the gracefulness of sensibility; if you yield to this vanity, your happiness is lost for ever.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

The first man to die became the powerful Yama of the Hindus, the monarch of the dead; and he became invested with metaphors of the sun that had set.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

Yü Huang, at the end of his resources, summoned Buddha, who came and addressed Sun as follows: “Why do you wish to possess yourself of the Kingdom of the Heavens?” “Have I not power enough to be the God of Heaven?” was the arrogant reply.
— from Myths and Legends of China by E. T. C. (Edward Theodore Chalmers) Werner

You have taken it into your head that I mean to pension you off.' 'True, sir,' returned Wegg, still with an obstinate magnanimity.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

5 O Adam, ask him who deceived you, to give you the divine nature he promised you, or to make you a garden as I had made for you; or to fill you with that same bright nature with which I had filled you.
— from The First Book of Adam and Eve by Rutherford Hayes Platt

I only said a word to her in passing yesterday of the possibility of her obtaining a year’s salary as a destitute widow of a government clerk.
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“That’s all nonsense, for you are made to give birth to amorous desires, and a man who could live with you without being able to possess you ought to cease to live.”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

“I have been calling on Mortimer, and he pointed you out to me from the window of his surgery as you passed.
— from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

This demonstration doth indeed very accurately and manifestly appeare, Although there may be an innumerable sort of ordinate plaines, yet of the kindes of angles five onely ordinate bodies may be made; From whence the Tetrahedrum, Octahedrum, and Icosahedrum are made upon a triangular base: the Cube upon a quadrangular: And the Dodecahedrum, upon a quinquangular.
— from The Way To Geometry by Petrus Ramus

To possess yourself of these papers, of the existence of which you yourself must have entertained some suspicions, you used unjustifiable arts towards this noble Earl of Sunbury, which were specious enough even to deceive his wisdom; but I obtained information of the facts, and frustrated your devices."
— from The King's Highway by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

If all the poor of Toledo were now shouting outside the doors of the Cathedral, rebellious and emboldened, I would open the way for them, I would point out those jewels that you covet, and I would say, 'Possess yourselves of those, they are so many drops of sweat and blood wrung from your ancestors; they represent the servile work on the land of the lords, the brutal plundering of the king's cavaliers, so that magnates and kings may cover with jewels those idols which can open to them the gates of heaven.
— from The Shadow of the Cathedral by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez

"Mrs. Gower will put you on the right track," he said quietly.
— from A Romance of Toronto (Founded on Fact): A Novel by Annie G. (Annie Gregg) Savigny

We pick you off the street and feed you and clothe you—and do your miserable plays—and you rush in here and strike my sister, Helen Merival, in the face.
— from The Light of the Star: A Novel by Hamlin Garland

How grey and colossal the past, yonder, of that dying, sinking city!
— from The Tour: A Story of Ancient Egypt by Louis Couperus

He'll pass you on to Sternford.
— from The Man in the Twilight by Ridgwell Cullum

Put you on to something tolerably ripe, if you know what I mean.
— from Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse

Wait until the opportunity comes, and you’ll just see how easy I put you on the mat.
— from The Outdoor Chums on the Lake; Or, Lively Adventures on Wildcat Island by Quincy Allen