Shortly after which oration, as they were going on a nuptial trip to Lyons, in order that Mr. Bounderby might take the opportunity of seeing how the Hands got on in those parts, and whether they, too, required to be fed with gold spoons; the happy pair departed for the railroad.
— from Hard Times by Charles Dickens

One of the very commonest remarks to be found in this bewildering array of Thug confessions is this: “Strangled him and threw him in a well!”
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

I scarce knew in what manner to receive them, but found to draw ourselves in a close line was the only way; so we formed in a moment; but that we might not have too much interval, I ordered that only every other man should fire, and that the others, who had not fired, should stand ready to give them a second volley immediately, if they continued to advance upon us; and then that those that had fired at first should not pretend to load their fusees again, but stand ready, every one with a pistol, for we were all armed with a fusee and a pair of pistols each man; so we were, by this method, able to fire six volleys, half of us at a time; however, at present we had no necessity; for upon firing the first volley, the enemy made a full stop, being terrified as well with the noise as with the fire.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

The religious extensions of society should therefore be carefully watched; for while sometimes, as with the Hebrew prophets, religion gives dramatic expression to actual social forces and helps to intensify moral feeling, it often, as in mystics of all creeds and ages, deadens the consciousness of real ties by feigning ties which are purely imaginary.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

A self-complacent ass, ready to be flattered out of your senses by every petticoat that chooses to take the trouble to do it!”
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

They boldly affirmed his innocence and his wrongs; demanded the restitution of his liberty or his lands; suspended, after a fruitless demand, their own service; rescued their brother from prison; and employed every weapon in his defence, without offering direct violence to the person of their lord, which was ever sacred in their eyes.
— 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

My cousin’s a wit: and your great wits always rally their best friends to choose.
— from The Way of the World by William Congreve

I ordered the railroad to be finished up to Raleigh, so that I could operate from it as a base, and then made: [Special Field Orders, No. 55] HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI IN THE FIELD, RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, April 14, 1865.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

Now this fin, being submerged when the frame is fixed in place, will be acted upon by the pressure of the water as the ship rolls, and will bend alternately upward and downward at an angle, the effect being that every time the ship rolls the bent fin will force backward a considerable quantity of water, or, what is the same thing, will have a tendency to thrust the ship forward at a rate which I estimate at—well, say about three knots per hour.”
— from Turned Adrift by Harry Collingwood

Tell her to bring it to me in cash, understand, the long green, and out he comes, to go back soon where he ought to be, for he has honestly no right to be free."
— from The Forged Note: A Romance of the Darker Races by Oscar Micheaux

"All right to be friendly," Tommy would say, "but we got to let 'em know this ain't no love-feast.
— from Kitchener's Mob: Adventures of an American in the British Army by James Norman Hall

These men are making you their victim: they are blinding your eyes; they are throwing a net around you, and you have not the resolution to break from the snare."
— from False Friends, and The Sailor's Resolve by Unknown

He rang the bell furiously, but there was no response.
— from Barriers Burned Away by Edward Payson Roe

I should make out the remainder, too, by farming the land myself.
— from Ralph the Heir by Anthony Trollope

They have recalled their Bieren from Siberia; declare that old Bieren is again Duke, or at least that young Bieren is, and not Saxon Karl at all; and have proceeded, Czarina Catharine has, to install him forcibly with Russian soldiers.
— from History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 21 by Thomas Carlyle

On the sixth day, the gold and silver plates were returned to Browndown from the manufactory in London.
— from Poor Miss Finch by Wilkie Collins

She filled the nipple with patchouli, cleaned the bochettino , perfumed the goose-quill, which she attached to the mouthpiece and used only once, set fire to the yellow leaves, placing the vase with its long neck enamelled in blue and gold at some distance from her, and rang the bell for tea.
— from Beatrix by Honoré de Balzac