Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wrecks, A thousand men that fishes gnaw'd upon, Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels, All scatt'red in the bottom of the sea; Some lay in dead men's skulls, and in the holes Where eyes did once inhabit there were crept, As 'twere in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems, That woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep And mock'd the dead bones that lay scatt'red by.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

She was nevertheless left a slave—a slave for life—a slave in the hands of strangers; and in their hands she saw her children, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren, divided, like so many sheep, without being gratified with the small privilege of a single word, as to their or her own destiny.
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass

Have not men, shut up in solitary imprisonment, found an interest in marking the moments by straight strokes of a certain length on the wall, until the growth of the sum of straight strokes, arranged in triangles, has become a mastering purpose?
— from Silas Marner by George Eliot

It has ever been my belief, contrary to the opinion of many, and particularly of La Boetie, that those whom we see so subdued and stupefied at the approaches of their end, or oppressed with the length of the disease, or by accident of an apoplexy or falling sickness, “Vi morbi saepe coactus Ante oculos aliquis nostros, ut fulminis ictu, Concidit, et spumas agit; ingemit, et tremit artus; Desipit, extentat nervos, torquetur, anhelat, Inconstanter, et in jactando membra fatigat;” [“Often, compelled by the force of disease, some one as thunderstruck falls under our eyes, and foams, groans, and trembles, stretches, twists, breathes irregularly, and in paroxysms wears out his strength.”—Lucretius, iii. 485.] or hurt in the head, whom we hear to mutter, and by fits to utter grievous groans; though we gather from these signs by which it seems as if they had some remains of consciousness, and that there are movements of the body; I have always believed, I say, both the body and the soul benumbed and asleep, “Vivit, et est vitae nescius ipse suae,”
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

To illustrate: One man, a noble, loving, beautiful spirit—nothing of the tyrant, nothing of the sensualist—with four lovely wives, three of whom I have seen, and in the homes of two of whom I have broken bread, with thirteen loved and loving children—wakes up to the new idea.
— from The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years by Ida Husted Harper

While one external cause, and that a reference to his long lingering agony, would always—as on the trial—evoke this condition from the depths of his soul, it was also in its nature to arise of itself, and to draw a gloom over him, as incomprehensible to those unacquainted with his story as if they had seen the shadow of the actual Bastille thrown upon him by a summer sun, when the substance was three hundred miles away.
— from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

She admitted it to herself in shame and bliss.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

It seemed as if the house stood in a desert, or, by some spell, was made invisible to those who dwelt around, or passed beside it; so that any mode of misfortune, miserable accident, or crime might happen in it without the possibility of aid.
— from The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Then in a very different tone she said, as if to herself, ‘My, how you do look like your father!’
— from My Antonia by Willa Cather

By three o'clock she was sure it must be six, and by four it seemed as if they had forgotten to note the hour and were letting all work overtime.
— from Sister Carrie: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser

esks and had passed over the small articles in the hope of getting a bigger harvest, or else was leaving those other things to the last.
— from The Camp Fire Girls at Onoway House; Or, The Magic Garden by Hildegard G. Frey

That night the whole world of man seemed small and shallow and insecure to her, beyond comparison.
— from Marriage by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

She asked if they had a good time, and said she was glad they got home promptly.
— from Among the Night People by Clara Dillingham Pierson

Remove the cracklings or scraps and into the hot fat put the meat and turn quickly until it is red on all sides.
— from The Kitchen Encyclopedia Twelfth Edition (Swift & Company) by Anonymous

They seem not to be as great a problem in the Potomac as in some other rivers, but they are present in probably significant amounts; indicator tests hover near Public Health Service drinking-water limits in the river.
— from The Nation's River: A report on the Potomac From the U.S. Department of the Interior by United States. Department of the Interior

Amparito accepted Cæsar’s suggestions as if they had been, articles of faith.
— from Cæsar or Nothing by Pío Baroja

What could he do but rush over to Traunberg, overwhelm her with tender reproaches, represent to her subtly and incontrovertibly that her shyness was morbid, her yielding to this mood fairly wrong.
— from Felix Lanzberg's Expiation by Ossip Schubin

As nearly as I can remember, she spoke nicely and wouldn’t let me use slang; and I think her father was a clergyman—I can remember an old photograph; but I’m not very sure about that.
— from Girls of Highland Hall: Further Adventures of the Dandelion Cottagers by Carroll Watson Rankin

"It's such a beautiful evening," said Mara, "and we are all in such good spirits about Moses's ship, and I told him you must come down and hold counsel with us as to what was to be done about the launching; and the name, you know, that is to be decided on—are you going to let it be called after you?"
— from The Pearl of Orr's Island: A Story of the Coast of Maine by Harriet Beecher Stowe