What would you not give, Tavy, to turn it into a railway accident, with all her bones broken or something equally respectable and deserving of sympathy? OCTAVIUS.
— from Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy by Bernard Shaw

But why take credit for so extremely reduced a deficiency at all?
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

She was yet a stranger to her history, or her apprehensions; but, had she known both, she would have given the same advice; for rest was visibly necessary for her; and their long journey through bye-roads so entirely removed all danger of pursuit, that she was herself perfectly easy on that account.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

My love I will ever retain, but it shall be in silence; it shall be at a distance from you; it shall be in some foreign land; from whence no voice, no sigh of my despair, shall ever reach and disturb your ears.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

Though they had few servants, yet with gas stoves, electric ranges and dish-washers and vacuum cleaners, and tiled kitchen walls, their houses were so convenient that they had little housework, and much of their food came from bakeries and delicatessens.
— from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

And now began a time, dream-like and delirious, of which I do not suppose that I shall ever recover a distinct recollection.
— from Erewhon; Or, Over the Range by Samuel Butler

Besides that Taxa Camerae Apostolicae , which was first published to get money in the days of Leo Decimus, that sharking pope, and since divulged to the same ends, sets down such easy rates and dispensations for all offences, for perjury, murder, incest, adultery, &c., for so many grosses or dollars (able to invite any man to sin, and provoke him to offend, methinks, that otherwise would not) such comfortable remission, so gentle and parable a pardon, so ready at hand, with so small cost and suit obtained, that I cannot see how he that hath any friends amongst them (as I say) or money in his purse, or will at least to ease himself, can any way miscarry or be misaffected, how he should be desperate, in danger of damnation, or troubled in mind.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

Each note requires three movements of a finger, the bending down and raising up, and at least one lateral, making no less than seventy-two motions in a second, each requiring a distinct effort of the will, and directed unerringly with a certain speed, and a certain force, to a certain place.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

He was a little black-looking man, about an inch shorter than myself, always badly dressed, sometimes even ragged, and despising alike comfort and convenience.
— from Napoleon Bonaparte by John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott

In close proximity may be found limestone, gypsum, white sandstone, and red sandstone, each representing a different geological era, and each, in all probability, representing millions of years in its formation."
— from The Land of Enchantment: From Pike's Peak to the Pacific by Lilian Whiting

We settle everything round a dinner-table.”
— from All Roads Lead to Calvary by Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome

It was natural that, during some of their many engagements, Emma should again meet Mr. Morgan; and equally natural that she should feel some embarrassing recollections at doing so.
— from The Younger Sister: A Novel, Volumes 1-3 by Mrs. (Catherine-Anne Austen) Hubback

That, I believe, was all strictly according to rule, for the purpose of preserving his base of operations; but I am labouring to shew that it was an occasion on which Massena might and ought to have set every rule at defiance, for, in possession of a strong fortress under his own lee, and another under that of his adversary, with an army in the field exceeding ours by a fourth, he ought to have known that no possible cast of the dice could have enabled us to do more than maintain the blockade—that, if we gave him a defeat it was impossible for us to follow it up, and if he 194 defeated us our ruin was almost inevitable—in short, had I been Prince of Essling, I would have thrust every thing but my fighting men under the protection of the guns of Rodrigo, and left myself, free and unfettered, to go where I liked, do what I could, and, if need be, to change bases with my adversary; and it is odd to me if I would not have cut such capers as would have astonished the great Duke himself.
— from Random Shots from a Rifleman by J. (John) Kincaid

The English people really like to think and talk of butcher's meat, and gaze at it with delight; and they crowd through the avenues of the market-houses and stand enraptured round a dead ox.
— from Passages from the English Notebooks, Complete by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Maine salmon, Massachusetts mackerel, New Jersey oysters, Florida shad, Kentucky beef, West Virginia mutton, Illinois prairie chickens, Virginia terrapin, Maryland crabs, Delaware canvas-back ducks, and South Carolina rice- birds were cooked by Monica, and served in a style that made the banker diplomat admit their superiority to the potages, sauces, entremets, ragouts, and desserts of his Parisian white-capped manipulator of casse-roles.
— from Perley's Reminiscences, v. 1-2 of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis by Benjamin Perley Poore