Jane was forced to smile completely, for a moment; and the smile partly remained as she turned towards him, and said in a conscious, low, yet steady voice, “How you can bear such recollections, is astonishing to me!—They will sometimes obtrude—but how you can court them!”
— from Emma by Jane Austen

About 4 p.m. the expected, sally came from Atlanta, directed mainly against Leggett's Hill and along the Decatur road.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

He sat considering for a minute or two, with his smile, at once so handsome and so kind, upon his changing face, and then requested me to let them know that he wished to see them.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

She craved food and rest—she hastened towards them at the very moment she was picturing to herself the bank from which she would leap towards death.
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot

We rather seek constantly for an external particular cause, as it were, a pretext for the pain which never leaves us, just as the free man makes himself an idol, in order to have a master.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer

of Aragon conquered Valencia, Cordova, Seville, and Murcia; and the rule of the Moors was now restricted to the present province of Granada, i.e. , the country about the Sierra Nevada and the sea coast from Almeria to Gibraltar.
— from The Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole

Of course I came home wondering why people should come from all corners of America to hear these operas, when we have lately had a season or two of them in New York with these same singers in the several parts, and possibly this same orchestra.
— from What Is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain

Unfortunately, however, as too frequently happens when men form secret confederacies for a wholly honourable purpose, their ranks were penetrated by confederates of another kind.
— from Secret Societies And Subversive Movements by Nesta Helen Webster

He wants, I suppose, complete freedom, and to amuse himself as he pleases, with no control.
— from The Sorceress (complete) by Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant

Pinto gave a little start, and seemed crispe for a moment.
— from Roundabout Papers by William Makepeace Thackeray

Phil pleaded Sol’s cause for a little, but only got called a sentimental fool for his kindly feelings; and he had no recourse but to obey instructions, for Brenchfield and Royce Pederstone had almost unlimited power in regard to Sol’s permanent freedom or confinement.
— from The Spoilers of the Valley by Robert Watson

I recived a letter from a frend in Washington last night and he says that my wife is in the city of Baltimore, and she will come away if she can find a frend to healp hir, so I thought I would writ to you as you are acquanted with foulks theare to howm you can trust with such matthas.
— from The Underground Railroad A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, &c., Narrating the Hardships, Hair-Breadth Escapes and Death Struggles of the Slaves in Their Efforts for Freedom, As Related by Themselves and Others, or Witnessed by the Author. by William Still

But of all things which the farmer’s boy is wanted to do, and wants to do, there is nothing such clear fun as the breaking of a yoke of calves.
— from Wonder Stories of Travel by Ernest Ingersoll

This Saviour came for all men; has He been with the red man?
— from Winnetou, the Apache Knight by Karl May

she said, as they struck across an open field that was used as a short cut from Audley Court to the high-road.
— from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

STEPHEN C. FOSTER AND NEGRO MINSTRELSY.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 121, November, 1867 A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics by Various

Still, it felt pleasant to see a few people about; and noticing a clean-looking whitewashed cottage, with a few bottles of sweets and ginger-beer in the window, I entered, sitting down on an empty box while a white-haired, round-backed old woman opened a bottle of ginger-beer, and a spaniel came from a back room and began to lick my hands.
— from Chatterbox, 1905. by Various

Having lately taken his degree at Cambridge, with high honours, which had been strenuously contended for, and purchased by severe labour, he was now recruiting his health, and enjoying a season of well-earned leisure under his guardian's roof.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 53, No. 331, May, 1843 by Various