‘“What advice?” ‘“To turn over a new leaf, you double-dyed scoundrel,” shouted Ralph, “and beg your wife’s pardon, and be a good boy for the future.”
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

Yours will be the power to estimate, in a thorough manner, the real motives of all things, as yours will be intelligence of an excessive degree; but instead (of reaping any benefit) you will cast the die of your own existence!
— from Hung Lou Meng, or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel, Book I by Xueqin Cao

I am sitting one morning in my study, a white-haired old man, when there walks into the room a blooming young man, whom I should never have recognized, but he held up his finger and said, laughing, ‘ Gott der Vater, Gott der Sohn , and Gott der heilige Geist .
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

And are you going to run away before you have fairly taught or learned whether they are true or not?
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

'What is it?' "'The rapids are below you.' 'Ha!
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

94 The banks of the Rhine 9411 from its source to the straits of the ocean, were closely planted with strong castles and convenient towers; new works, and new arms, were invented by the ingenuity of a prince who was skilled in the mechanical arts; and his numerous levies of Roman and Barbarian youth were severely trained in all the exercises of war.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

In 1487, being the 4th of Henry VII., it was enacted, that "whosoever shall sell by retail a broad yard of the finest scarlet grained, or of other grained cloth of the finest making, above sixteen shillings, shall forfeit forty shillings for every yard so sold."
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Upon a mellow autumn day, about noon, when the ground was perfumed by fallen leaves, and many more, in beautiful tints of yellow, red, and brown, yet hung upon the trees, through which the sun was shining, I arrived at Highgate.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

It is not my desire at present discourage you from this course, for I would have no one act in opposition to his conscience; but I wish, having regard to the good repute acquired by your family from its enduring concord—a family than which none can be dearer to me; a family, thank God!
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

So the first Canadian home was founded in romance, and, better yet, in true love; and Marguerite de Roberval, faithful wife in fact if not by title, deserves to be held in honor among Canadian traditions as the tutelary saint of the Canadian household.
— from Women of America Woman: In all ages and in all countries Vol. 10 (of 10) by John Ruse Larus

“Humph!” said I, “the meeting will be rather awkward, but you may induce your second husband to resign.”
— from Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete by Various

Leave barn and byre,[3] leave kin and cot, Lay by the bloodless spade; Let desk, and case, and counter rot, And burn your books of trade.
— from Poets of the South A Series of Biographical and Critical Studies with Typical Poems, Annotated by F. V. N. (Franklin Verzelius Newton) Painter

The big bear-hunter was not used to the society of ladies; and though the manners of Peter's court were far from being characterized by all that we in our day understand when we speak of refinement and breeding, yet the measure of their civilization was naturally far beyond that reached by the good folks at Dubinka, or even at Archangel.
— from Boris the Bear-Hunter by Frederick Whishaw

"Cars ready for Boston and way stations!" "O, yes!" replied a brisk young man, with a bright eye, peculiar smirk, spotted neckcloth, and gray gaiters with pearl buttons.
— from The Three Brides, Love in a Cottage, and Other Tales by Francis A. (Francis Alexander) Durivage

Old England, I must own, has got a grist of noble families and great men, that are an honor and etarnal glory to it, but the blood that biled up in that old man's heart, was as red, as brave, yes, and as noble tu, as ever poured itself out on the sile of old England, in the time of William, or any other Conqueror; and if I ever set up for a big bug, and put picters on my carriage door, I kinder think that I shan't be much ashamed to have Jonathan Slick's coat of arms, a 'hand gripped hard on a lap-stun;' for consarn me, if we, any on us, ever get to be much, it will be through the old Shoemaker, and I aint ashamed to own it."
— from High Life in New York A series of letters to Mr. Zephariah Slick, Justice of the Peace, and Deacon of the church over to Weathersfield in the state of Connecticut by Ann S. (Ann Sophia) Stephens

Well, you draw on your recollection as best you can and you just keep telling us now in your own words and I will try to not interrupt you too much.
— from Warren Commission (11 of 26): Hearings Vol. XI (of 15) by United States. Warren Commission

Whereupon he asked me of certain particularities of the siege and so forth, and at that I confessed all; namely, how I had spent some few days with a fellow that had also escaped, and with him had attacked and plundered a coach, with intent to get so much booty from Weimar's people that we could get us horses, and so properly equipped could come to our regiments again; but yesterday we had been attacked unawares by a corporal and six other fellows that would have taken us, whereby my comrade had been left dead on the field with six of the enemy, while the seventh as well as I had escaped: but he to his own party.
— from The Adventurous Simplicissimus being the description of the Life of a Strange vagabond named Melchior Sternfels von Fuchshaim by Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen

Then as her eager eye caught a glimpse of the roses, "Ah, but you men are sly!
— from The White Shield by Myrtle Reed

"Aye," said I, "and a tree for every rogue that rows a boat yonder.
— from The House Under the Sea: A Romance by Max Pemberton