I had all my meals in the schoolroom with my pupils, at such times as suited their fancy: sometimes they would ring for dinner before it was half cooked; sometimes they would keep it waiting on the table for above an hour, and then be out of humour because the potatoes were cold, and the gravy covered with cakes of solid fat; sometimes they would have tea at four; frequently, they would storm at the servants because it was not in precisely at five; and when these orders were obeyed, by way of encouragement to punctuality, they would keep it on the table till seven or eight.
— from Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë

It was so charmingly proportioned, so balanced, and so well clothed, that Euphemia's instinctive propriety was at once alarmed; such figures, she knew, by intuition rather than experience, were rarely connected with virtue—certainly never in her mind, for her own back was somewhat difficult to fit.
— from The Forsyte Saga, Volume I. The Man Of Property by John Galsworthy

In like manner, the disbelief of a Divine Providence renders a man incapable of holding any public station; for, since kings avow themselves to be the deputies of Providence, the Lilliputians think nothing can be more absurd than for a prince to employ such men as disown the authority under which he acts.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Regions of the World by Jonathan Swift

It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn’t it?
— from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

These are their sentiments; others say, that a tyrannical and despotical mode of government is the only happy one; for even amongst some free states the object of their laws seems to be to tyrannise over their neighbours: so that the generality of political institutions, wheresoever dispersed, if they have any one common object in view, have all of them this, to conquer and govern.
— from Politics: A Treatise on Government by Aristotle

The two ships for some time swinged alongside of each other; for ours being a fire-ship, our grappling-irons caught the Lynne every way, and the yards and rigging went at an astonishing rate.
— from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African Written By Himself by Olaudah Equiano

19 Then he showed four lights when he wished to have the sails set full, so that they might always sail in his wake by the torch on the poop.
— from The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 33, 1519-1522 Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century by Antonio Pigafetta

[suffering from shock]
— from Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw

ade, but they had journeyed so far since dusk, and the trouble of constructing a float was such that he thought it best to wait where they were until daylight.
— from The Hunters of the Ozark by Edward Sylvester Ellis

Attacked under every possible disadvantage, outnumbered in every direction, with our arsenals in the enemy’s hands, and having to fight at the worst season of the year, that handful of the great Anglo-Saxon race turned fiercely to bay, supplied every deficiency by dauntless courage, wise policy, and heroic endurance, and broke the neck of the rebellion under the walls of Delhi, and in the residency of Lucknow, before a single fresh soldier had arrived from England.
— from India and Indian Engineering. Three lectures delivered at the Royal Engineer Institute, Chatham, in July 1872 by J. G. (Julius George) Medley

Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. v TO THE MANY PLEASANT YOUNG FRIENDS WHO, CONSCIOUSLY OR UNCONSCIOUSLY, HAVE ASSISTED IN THE MAKING OF THIS BOOK vi vii CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE An Expert Packer 1 CHAPTER II Archer Receives 9 CHAPTER III First Impressions 21 CHAPTER IV Bruce gives Advice 29 CHAPTER V Sport for Sport’s Sake 38 CHAPTER VI A Bone of Contention
— from The Yale Cup by Albertus T. (Albertus True) Dudley

Whirling around its walks in carriages, or gently promenading under trees, among rose-bushes, and by fountains, while a large band of musicians play with spirit fine selections from the last operas, or favorite airs from old ones; the eye gratified by the sight of pleasant faces, or dwelling enraptured on the beautiful landscape spread before it—how can the brain disengage itself to think of Liberty, won through toil and battle, only to be preserved by self-denial and moral strength?
— from The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 2, August, 1862 Devoted to Literature and National Policy by Various

Through the long day she sat, without moving, without taking her eyes from the landscape, while the sunlight faded slowly away from the fields and the afterglow flushed and waned, and the stars shone out, one by one, through the silver web of the twilight.
— from Virginia by Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow

" The world, usually one great "School for Scandal," had not yet circulated the story of Captain De Crespigny's inconstancy, and Agnes' disappointment; therefore, dreading above all things the contemptuous pity bestowed on a case like hers, she now exerted herself, from the fear of ridicule more than even of censure.
— from Modern Flirtations: A Novel by Catherine Sinclair

I feel that I do something when I keep myself under control; or rather our Lord does so, when He holds back with His hand any one in this state from saying or doing something that may be hurtful to his neighbours and offensive to God.
— from The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, of the Order of Our Lady of Carmel by Teresa, of Avila, Saint

But the highest region of the Spiritual Mind, when explored by the advanced souls who are well along the Path, reports that it sees beyond the apparent separation of Spirit from Spirit, and realizes that there is but one Reality of Spirit, and that all the "I"'s are really but different views of that One—Centres of Consciousness upon the surface of the One Great "I," the Centre of which is the Absolute Itself.
— from A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga by William Walker Atkinson