Have your fare ready, and the instant that your cab stops, dash through the Arcade, timing yourself to reach the other side at a quarter-past nine.
— from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Mingled with this horror, I felt the bitterness of disappointment; dreams that had been my food and pleasant rest for so long a space were now become a hell to me; and the change was so rapid, the overthrow so complete!
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

In the fourteenth of Richard II., this duty was raised to one shilling in the pound; but, three years afterwards, it was again reduced to sixpence.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

She therefore thanked the little man for his offer, and said, glancing timidly towards his friend, that if there was no objection to their accompanying them as far as the race town— ‘Objection!’ said the little man.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Our provision of liquids was reduced to our supply of Schiedam; but this horrible—nay, I will say it—this infernal liquor burnt the throat, and I could not even bear the sight of it.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

All being mainly due to the species of the same group being the descendants of a common progenitor, from whom they have inherited much in common, to parts which have recently and largely varied being more likely still to go on varying than parts which have long been inherited and have not varied, to natural selection having more or less completely, according to the lapse of time, overmastered the tendency to reversion and to further variability, to sexual selection being less rigid than ordinary selection, and to variations in the same parts having been accumulated by natural and sexual selection, and thus having been adapted for secondary sexual, and for ordinary purposes.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

We made merry in the little parlour, where the Book of Martyrs, unthumbed since my time, was laid out upon the desk as of old, and where I now turned over its terrific pictures, remembering the old sensations they had awakened, but not feeling them.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Never interrupt any one who is speaking; it is quite as rude to officiously supply a name or date about which another hesitates, unless you are asked to do so.
— from The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness Being a Complete Guide for a Gentleman's Conduct in All His Relations Towards Society by Cecil B. Hartley

“Yes,” replied the other smiling—“I am happy enough now; but when we are married—when William makes me his wife, people won’t look down on me any longer.
— from Jane Sinclair; Or, The Fawn Of Springvale The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two by William Carleton

If he rowed out on the fjord below, and past the little tongue of land yonder, and thus reached the other side of the mountain, he might contrive to climb it, though it was so steep that a goat could scarcely venture there—and a goat is not very apt to be timid in climbing the mountains, you know.
— from Arne; Early Tales and Sketches Patriots Edition by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

At this chance thrust young Barter turned curiously red and white, and had some ado to recover that open smile of his.
— from Young Mr. Barter's Repentance From "Schwartz" by David Christie Murray by David Christie Murray

On each side of the road is heard the roaring torrent of stormy waters rolling down from the mountain side.
— from Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti

page 117 p. 117 Some few of those advocations require particular colours to be observed in the vestments appropriated to the respective statues; the Virgin of Carmen, for example, must be dressed in white and dark grey; that of the Conception in white and blue; that of Griefs in blue and red; that of Solitude in white and black, and so on.
— from Roman Catholicism in Spain by Anonymous

And then, even in his trouble, he remembered the old saw that "What is done is done; and the egg cracked cannot be cured."
— from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

For, to return to our statue in the block of marble, we see it sometimes only begun to be chipped, sometimes sough hewn, and but just sketched into an human figure; sometimes we see the man appearing distinctly in all his limbs and features, sometimes we find the figure wrought up to a great elegancy, but seldom meet with any to which the hand of Phidias or Prixiteles could not give several nice touches and finishings.
— from The Young Gentleman and Lady's Monitor, and English Teacher's Assistant Being a collection of select pieces from our best modern writers, calculated to eradicate vulgar prejudices and rusticity of manners, improve the understanding, rectify the will, purify the passions, direct the minds of youth to the pursuit of proper objects, and to facilitate their reading, writing, and speaking the English language with elegance and propriety by John Hamilton Moore

His ambition inflamed by his discontent, he had, since his return to office, strained every nerve to strengthen his position.
— from Alice, or the Mysteries — Complete by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron

He reaches the opposite shore, he himself never knew how.
— from Felix Lanzberg's Expiation by Ossip Schubin