‘I might ha’ knowa’d,’ said John, ‘that nobody but thou would ha’ coom wi’ sike a knock as you.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

We should not be serious all the time of our drive, for at every instant I should steal a kiss, and your feet would be resting on mine.
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous

Which was the reason why our sage and serious poet Spenser, whom I dare be known to think a better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas, describing true temperance under the person of Guion, brings him in with his palmer through the cave of Mammon, and the bower of earthly bliss, that he might see and know, and yet abstain.
— from Areopagitica A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England by John Milton

Nay, said the king, I suppose ye will not depart so lightly from this fellowship, I suppose ye are displeased that I have shewed you unkindness; blame me the less, for I was misinformed against you, but I weened ye had not been such a knight as ye are, of worship and prowess, and if ye will abide in this court among my fellowship, I shall so advance you as ye shall be pleased.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir

Why, said Beaumains, an he be such a knight as ye make him, he will not set upon me with all his men, or with his five hundred knights.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir

"Then if it be essential that every knight-errant should be in love," said the traveller, "it may be fairly supposed that your worship is so, as you are of the order; and if you do not pride yourself on being as reticent as Don Galaor, I entreat you as earnestly as I can, in the name of all this company and in my own, to inform us of the name, country, rank, and beauty of your lady, for she will esteem herself fortunate if all the world knows that she is loved and served by such a knight as your worship seems to be."
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Bless you, you think everybody's as straightforward and kindhearted as you are.”
— from Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes

“Then if it be essential that every knight-errant should be in love,” said the traveller, “it may be fairly supposed that your worship is so, as you are of the order; and if you do not pride yourself on being as reticent as Don Galaor, I entreat you as earnestly as I can, in the name of all this company and in my own, to inform us of the name, country, rank, and beauty of your lady, for she will esteem herself fortunate if all the world knows that she is loved and served by such a knight as your worship seems to be.” At this Don Quixote heaved a deep sigh and said, “I cannot say positively whether my sweet enemy is pleased or not that the world should know I serve her; I can only say in answer to what has been so courteously asked of me, that her name is Dulcinea, her country El Toboso, a village of La Mancha, her rank must be at least that of a princess, since she is my queen and lady, and her beauty superhuman, since all the impossible and fanciful attributes of beauty which the poets apply to their ladies are verified in her; for her hairs are gold, her forehead Elysian fields, her eyebrows rainbows, her eyes suns, her cheeks roses, her lips coral, her teeth pearls, her neck alabaster, her bosom marble, her hands ivory, her fairness snow, and what modesty conceals from sight such, I think and imagine, as rational reflection can only extol, not compare.”
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

All because of this want of respect of yours, your elder cousin is so angry with you that his teeth itch; and were it not that I prevent him, he would hit you with his foot in the stomach and kick all your intestines out!
— from Hung Lou Meng, or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel, Book I by Xueqin Cao

Certain it is, that when one of these ghost elephants was shot at Klang a year or two ago, it did not succumb until some fifty or sixty rifle-bullets had been poured into it, and its death was followed by a fall in the local value of coffee and coffee land, from which the district took long to recover.
— from Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula by Walter William Skeat

I wad hae gien the best man in the country the breadth o' his back gin he had gien me sic a kemping as ye hae dune.
— from Rob Roy — Volume 02 by Walter Scott

As they are about to go upstairs, KARL comes back from R. OLGA , looking coldly over shoulder at KARL Are you going to stay here?
— from The Devil by Ferenc Molnár

And here comes in what seems a key and yet may not be a key to happenings too remarkable for belief.
— from The Cassowary; What Chanced in the Cleft Mountains by Stanley Waterloo

I waited till the last little second—till the bowsprit swayed in toward the cliff, and then, while it balanced there and before it started to settle again, knowing, as you all know, the power that’s in the uplift of a sea, I gathered myself and jumped.
— from The Deep Sea's Toll by James B. (James Brendan) Connolly

One day in a house of ill repute he shot and killed a young man; for this crime he was arrested, tried and convicted, but the wealth and influence of his family secured him a pardon.
— from The Nation Behind Prison Bars by George L. (George Lewis) Herr

Take my advice, sir, and keep a yellow dump (sovereign) in yer coat-tails, a flatch yenork (half-crown) in yer waistcoat, and yer yeneps (pence) in yer breeches.
— from Robert Falconer by George MacDonald

No, no, I pray you say nothing since I must go away at once, as according to the law of the Ethiopians the time has come for the Grasshopper to sleep, alone, Karema, as you are not yet acknowledged as my wife.
— from The Ancient Allan by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard