Such a thing is sheer" (he nearly said "Romanticism," but changed his mind) "rubbish."
— from Fathers and Sons by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

I am sure there was some great neglect or other on their side, for she is not the kind of girl to do such a thing if she had been well looked after.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I explained how he objected to the whole household at the Heights, and how sorry he would be to find she had been there; but I insisted most on the fact, that if she revealed my negligence of his orders, he would perhaps be so angry that I should have to leave; and Cathy couldn’t bear that prospect: she pledged her word, and kept it for my sake.
— from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

This news I confess did much trouble me, but when I did hear how he is come to himself, and hath wholly left Chelsy, and the slut, and that I see he do follow his business, and becomes in better repute than before, I am rejoiced to see it, though it do cost me some disfavour for a time, for if not his good nature and ingenuity, yet I believe his memory will not bear it always in his mind.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Well, I’ll repent, and that suddenly, while I am in some liking; I shall be out of heart shortly, and then I shall have no strength to repent.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

When I am behind him and C. in front of him, he whirls one eye rearwards and the other forwards—which gives him a most Congressional expression (one eye on the constituency and one on the swag); and then if something happens above and below him he shoots out one eye upward like a telescope and the other downward—and this changes his expression, but does not improve it.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

“Yes, yes,” resounded on all sides, and though I should have preferred to sleep with Marcoline by herself, I laughed and agreed; I have always been able to accommodate myself to circumstances.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Rastignac determined to open two parallel trenches so as to insure success; he would be a learned doctor of law and a man of fashion.
— from Father Goriot by Honoré de Balzac

An' here—same chapter: 'Wives, submit yourselves to your awn husbands, as unto the Lard.' Ban't tawld to submit theerselves to young, flauntin' bachelors, you see; an' then it says how women should hold theer awn men in special reverence."
— from Sons of the Morning by Eden Phillpotts

You haven't such a thing, I suppose," he added, half jokingly.
— from The Scarlet Bat: A Detective Story by Fergus Hume

I told Thornton the story, and that I suspected him to be the man.
— from Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams During the Revolution with a Memoir of Mrs. Adams by Abigail Adams

It may seem absurd that I should have made so much of the inferences that followed my consideration of this problem, but the truth is that my mind was so intensely occupied with one subject that everything seemed to point to the participation of the important Arthur Banks.
— from The Jervaise Comedy by J. D. (John Davys) Beresford

"If you are going to say anything that I shall hate to hear," answered John, half-laughing, "don't keep me lingering long.
— from Fated to Be Free: A Novel by Jean Ingelow

Seeing all this is so, how can I apprehend the least notion of leaving thee?
— from The Pilgrim of Castile; or, El Pelegrino in Su Patria by Lope de Vega

Nora will give us broiled chicken and yellow wine in the long-necked glasses, and cake with nuts in it, and you," she stopped for a second, the dimple in the left cheek showing itself, "will give all of your Page 44 nuts to me; for it is well to sacrifice for another," she said, with a laugh, "and exceeding well," she added, "that I should have the nuts."
— from Katrine: A Novel by Elinor Macartney Lane

And from the cape of Malacca towardes the North so high as the Ile of Iapan, and from thence the cost of China being part of Asia continueth still North to the promontory Tabin, where the Scithian sea and this Indian sea haue recourse togeather, no part of America being neere the same by many 100 leages to hinder this passage.
— from The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 06 Madiera, the Canaries, Ancient Asia, Africa, etc. by Richard Hakluyt

I have already said that Dubois looked most unfavourably upon my embassy to Spain, and that I saw he was determined to do all in his power to throw obstacles in its way.
— from Court Memoirs of France Series — Complete by Various