We would all much rather have declined this invitation; but we felt that it would not be quite kind to Mrs Forrester, who would otherwise be left to a solitary retrospect of her not p. 155 very happy or fortunate life.
— from Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

But rivers alter their course, sometimes beating against the one side, and sometimes the other, and some times quietly keeping the channel.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

John saw in a minute that a revolution of some kind was going on, but wisely asked no questions, knowing that Meg was such a transparent little person, she couldn't keep a secret to save her life, and therefore the clew would soon appear.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

There is one friend he has not seen yet, and as he cannot be conveniently introduced into the family circle, by reason of his being an iron-shod quadruped, Kit takes the first opportunity of slipping away and hurrying to the stable.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

*santul 2 -un(→) a unsociable: tending to be quiet, keep to oneself and cranky if approached.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

But my Lord did forbear to increase the quarrel, knowing that it would be to no good purpose for the world to see a difference in the family; but did allay him so as that he fell to weeping.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

But, the day's stories being now ended and the sun beginning to abate of its heat, the queen, knowing the end of her seignory to be come, rose to her feet and putting off the crown, set it on the head of Pamfilo, whom alone it remained to honour after such a fashion, and said, smiling, "My lord, there devolveth on thee a great burden, inasmuch as with thee it resteth, thou being the last, to make amends for my default and that of those who have foregone me in the dignity which thou presently holdest; whereof God lend thee grace, even as He hath vouchsafed it unto me to make thee king."
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

Thus they will tell somebody that he has to thank their patronage for this or that, although the person in question knows the case to be absolutely different.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross

The king, within whose ordered soul Justice and virtue held control, To Queen Kaikeyí turned and said, With every sense disquieted: “Touch me not, thou whose soul can plot All sin.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

The gaiety jarred upon Henchard's spirits; and he could not quite understand why Farfrae, a much-sobered man, and a widower, who had had his trials, should have cared for it all, notwithstanding the fact that he was quite a young man still, and quickly kindled to enthusiasm by dance and song.
— from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

True he had broken the law, true he had struck for a despised people, true he had crept upon his foe stealthily, like a wolf upon the fold, and had dealt his blow in the dark whilst his enemy slept, but with all this and more to disturb the moral sense, men discerned in him the greatest and best qualities known to human nature, and pronounced him "good."
— from John Brown: An Address at the 14th Anniversary of Storer College by Frederick Douglass

“Dad and mamma don’t need me to be kind to them, and I am quite kind to Hans and Dick.
— from Ruby: A Story of the Australian Bush by Molly E. Jamieson

6. Q Kt to Q 2 ...
— from Hoyle's Games Modernized by Professor Hoffmann

Callon could not quite keep the relief which he felt out of his eyes or the smile from his lips.
— from The Truants by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason

Of these two latter classes the Pope was the natural leader, the first was divided into factions headed by some three or four of the great families, whose quarrels kept the town in incessant bloodshed.
— from The Holy Roman Empire by Bryce, James Bryce, Viscount

Some of them—I noticed it in the hotel dining-room that evening—were taking quite kindly to their food again.
— from Idle Ideas in 1905 by Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome

They are quite keen to get back again and have been from the beginning.
— from Raymond; or, Life and Death With examples of the evidence for survival of memory and affection after death. by Lodge, Oliver, Sir

Perhaps, as a situation, it is a little nearer than Mr Arnold quite knew to that of Paracelsus , and it is handled with less force, if with more clearness, than Browning’s piece.
— from Matthew Arnold by George Saintsbury

“Perhaps you don’t quite know the beginning of it all,” said Gwendolen, slowly, as if she were overcoming her reluctance.
— from Daniel Deronda by George Eliot