There also sat a man at a little distance from the door, at a table-side, with a book and his inkhorn before him, to take the name of him that should enter therein; he saw also, that in the doorway stood many men in armour to keep it, being resolved to do the men that would enter what hurt and mischief they could.
— from The Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that which is to come Delivered under the similitude of a dream, by John Bunyan by John Bunyan

Thought seemed to be something enormous that had suddenly slipped out of their grasp.
— from The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

Nature and life are tentative in all their processes, so that there is nothing exceptional in the fact that, since in crude experience image and emotion are inevitably regarded as constituting a single event, this habit should usually lead to childish absurdities, but also, under special circumstances, to rational insight and morality.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

When she entered the house she perceived in a moment from her mother's triumphant manner that something had occurred in the interim.
— from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy

that make us sigh Ever to have seen such; for she was one Fit for the model of a statuary (A race of mere impostors, when all 's done— I 've seen much finer women, ripe and real, Than all the nonsense of their stone ideal).
— from Don Juan by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

poor fellow!” said Eliza; “they have sold you!
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

I met with Dr. Pierce to-day, who, speaking of Dr. Frazier’s being so earnest to have such a one (one Collins) go chyrurgeon to the Prince’s person will have him go in his terms and with so much money put into his hands, he tells me (when I was wondering that Frazier should order things with the Prince in that confident manner) that Frazier is so great with my Lady Castlemayne, and Stewart, and all the ladies at Court, in helping to slip their calfes when there is occasion, and with the great men in curing of their claps that he can do what he please with the King, in spite of any man, and upon the same score with the Prince; they all having more or less occasion to make use of him.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

But the "spirit," especially the "historical spirit," profits even by this desperation: once and again a new sample of the past or of the foreign is tested, put on, taken off, packed up, and above all studied—we are the first studious age in puncto of "costumes," I mean as concerns morals, articles of belief, artistic tastes, and religions; we are prepared as no other age has ever been for a carnival in the grand style, for the most spiritual festival—laughter and arrogance, for the transcendental height of supreme folly and Aristophanic ridicule of the world.
— from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

‘But it is not known that it was the General himself who took his grandson poison: it was said even that he shot him in the prison.
— from Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray

Her husband did not count for much among the distinguished guests who in later years frequented her salon, and his part in her life seems to have consisted mainly in furnishing the money so essential to her success, and in looking carefully after the interests of the menage.
— from The Women of the French Salons by Amelia Gere Mason

The Kaiser was so enraged that he slapped the Burgomeister on the cheek, and rode off in a royal huff to Rothenburg.
— from The Story of Nuremberg by Cecil Headlam

She examined the hands submitted to her notice, and interpreted the lines with an amount of conscientious commonplaceness for which I should never have given her credit.
— from The Argosy Vol. 51, No. 1, January, 1891 by Various

This he did so effectively that he soon led her out smiling through her tears, for her confidence in him was the growth and habit of years, and anything he said to her seemed for the moment true.
— from Without a Home by Edward Payson Roe

Although he is a very clear writer, the English of Shakespeare’s time is not always readily understandable by us.—C. H. F-L. Queen Elizabeth, the wisest and the most humane sovereign of her time, had ample excuse for the [12] license which she extended to her sea captains in the matter of attacking the Spanish possessions and ships.
— from Captain John Smith by C. H. Forbes-Lindsay

One of our gentlemen standing on the steps was so enraged that he sent a bullet after the cravens; others did the same, and I would to heaven that one of their shots had took effect on the wretches!
— from In Clive's Command: A Story of the Fight for India by Herbert Strang

It was fortunate he did, for a group of men were telling about some experiments they had seen in Paris with a magnet and electricity.
— from The Child's Book of American Biography by Mary Stoyell Stimpson

“Why, this duel is a joke!” said Edmond to his seconds.
— from Paul and His Dog, v.2 (Novels of Paul de Kock Volume XIV) by Paul de Kock

Supposing even that Hydaspes should recollect any of these trinkets, who shall persuade him that they were presented to me by Persina, and still more, that they were the gifts of a mother to her daughter?
— from The Greek Romances of Heliodorus, Longus and Achilles Tatius Comprising the Ethiopics; or, Adventures of Theagenes and Chariclea; The pastoral amours of Daphnis and Chloe; and the loves of Clitopho and Leucippe by of Emesa Heliodorus