"Whether you come victorious or vanquished out of this emprise, sir knight," replied he of the Mirrors, "you will have more than enough time and leisure to see me; and if now I do not comply with your request, it is because it seems to me I should do a serious wrong to the fair Casildea de Vandalia in wasting time while I stopped to raise my visor before compelling you to confess what you are already aware I maintain."
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

" "It is true, though—what your brother says, Rosamond," Mrs. Vincy began, when the servant had cleared the table.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

To augment their misery, a contagious disorder of a dangerous nature spread through the land; and, rendered more virulent by the uncleanness, the indifferent food, and the wretched lodging of the lower classes, swept off many whose fate the survivors were tempted to envy, as exempting them from the evils which were to come.
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott

On a certain day, sir, I happened to be walking in the yard—taking my lonely round—for in the words of a friend of my own family, the author of All's Well arranged as a duett: “Deserted, as you will remember Mr Venus, by the waning moon, When stars, it will occur to you before I mention it, proclaim night's cheerless noon, On tower, fort, or tented ground, The sentry walks his lonely round, The sentry walks:” —under those circumstances, sir, I happened to be walking in the yard early one afternoon, and happened to have an iron rod in my hand, with which I have been sometimes accustomed to beguile the monotony of a literary life, when I struck it against an object not necessary to trouble you by naming—' 'It is necessary.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

Hier sitz' ich auf Rasen mit Veilchen bekränzt —Here 25 sit I upon the sward wreathed with violets.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

General Rosecrans made very bad work of it in Missouri, allowing Price with a small force to overrun the State and destroy millions of property.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

I called out several times, as loud as I could raise my voice, but all to no purpose.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Regions of the World by Jonathan Swift

So home, and after reading my vows, being sleepy, without prayers to bed, for which God forgive me!
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

The Nun's Rule (Ancren Riwle), modern version by J. Morton, in King's Classics; Aucassin and Nicolete, translated by A. Lang (Crowell & Co.); Tristan and Iseult, in Arthurian Romances; Evans's The High History of the Holy Grail, in Temple Classics; The Pearl, various modern versions in prose and verse; one of the best is Jewett's metrical version (Crowell & Co.); The Song of Roland, in King's Classics, and in Riverside Literature Series; Evans's translation of Geoffrey's History, in Temple Classics; Guest's The Mabinogion, in Everyman's Library, or S. Lanier's Boy's Mabinogion (i.e. Welsh fairy tales and romances); Selected Ballads, in Athenæum Press Series, and in Pocket Classics; Gayley and Flaherty's Poetry of the People; Bates's A Ballad Book.
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

You can give me the money on the spot if you like, Kaye; and if I didn't want ready money very badly I shouldn't come to you.
— from Charlotte's Inheritance by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

"She's too good for everyday use, that's a fact," remarked Mr. Van Brunt.
— from The Wide, Wide World by Susan Warner

I frequently relieved my voice by dropping into a conversational tone, finding this much easier for myself and much more agreeable to my hearers.
— from Autobiography of Charles Clinton Nourse Prepared for use of Members of the Family by Charles Clinton Nourse

'You are aware of my being poor company, sir,' replied Mr Venus, 'but be it so.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

If the object be delicate vegetable tissue, it will be in some respects rendered more visible by gentle heating or scorching by a clear fire placed between two plates of glass.
— from The Microscope by Andrew Ross

Nevers being slain in the Bartholomew Massacre, Raoul marries Valentina, but scarcely is the ceremony over when both are shot by the musketeers under the command of St. Bris.—Meyerbeer, Les Huguenots (opera, 1836).
— from Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 3 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

“You will excuse my roughness, Mrs. Vickers, but I have become quite a slave to my pipe.
— from For the Term of His Natural Life by Marcus Andrew Hislop Clarke