Yes, such is the frailty of man, that even there, where he has the greatest consciousness of his own being, where he makes the strongest and most forcible impression, even in the memory, in the heart, of his beloved, there also he must perish,—vanish,—and that quickly.
— from The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Since then we have had the tulip craze in Holland, the Hooley excitement, and the Barney Barnato South African mining furor in England, the Secretan copper corner, and the tremendous bonanza delirium in California; but none of these, save the first, is comparable with the magnitude of the copper maelstrom of 1899.
— from Frenzied Finance, Vol. 1: The Crime of Amalgamated by Thomas William Lawson

XII SPRING ON THE ELK Spring came early in that latitude, and Curtis was profoundly thankful that his first winter had proven unusually short and mild, for it enabled him to provide for his people far better than he had dared to hope.
— from The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop by Hamlin Garland

Form is a Proteus much more difficult to seize and more fertile in evasions than the Proteus of fable; only after long struggles can one compel it to show itself in its real guise.
— from Honoré de Balzac by Honoré de Balzac

Fat, chuckling Nancy, too, who seemed to be always brimming over with good nature and good spirits, frequently sought her society, and Margaret found it even more impossible to brood secretly over her misdeeds in Nancy's society as when she was playing croquet.
— from The Rebellion of Margaret by Geraldine Mockler

Only in real stories do people at such a moment fall into each other's arms.
— from The City of Beautiful Nonsense by E. Temple (Ernest Temple) Thurston

"This girl," he thought, "is either the strangest and most faithful I ever met, or the worst arch-deceiver I ever was duped by."
— from The Weird of the Wentworths: A Tale of George IV's Time, Vol. 2 by Johannes Scotus

Anyway, to know all about something's a mighty fine idea, even if you don't get a chance to tell folks."
— from Why Joan? by Eleanor Mercein Kelly

On his arrival, Courtray surrendered; {71} and soon after Menin followed its example.
— from Memoirs of the Marchioness of Pompadour (vol. 1 of 2) by Pompadour, Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, marquise de

the climate and general aspect of Nature, the peculiar environing conditions, gave him the noblest soul and most fertile intellect ever housed in the brain of a barbarian.
— from Mr. Oseba's Last Discovery by George W. (George William) Bell

It was the hideous and abandoned house of a South African millionnaire, this home, but Lady Ishbel had refurnished it by degrees, and her boudoir in particular, with its pale French silks and many flowers, its Empire furniture, both delicately wrought and solid, framed appropriately a soft aristocratic loveliness that almost concealed strong bones and firm lines.
— from Julia France and Her Times: A Novel by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton