He was carried away, at first, by the instinct of self-preservation; he rallied all his ideas in haste, stifled his emotions, took into consideration
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

— He obstinately will remain, Still hopes, endeavours, though in vain.
— from Eugene Oneguine [Onegin] A Romance of Russian Life in Verse by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin

They murdered; they conspired; and before a year of slavery had elapsed, they implored, or accepted, the succor of a Barbarian, whose power they had felt, and whose gratitude they trusted.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

"Miss Minchin's tables and chairs are just like her," she thought; "I remember thinking that the first minute I saw her, even though I was so little.
— from A Little Princess Being the whole story of Sara Crewe now told for the first time by Frances Hodgson Burnett

For, when a man's view contradicts his ideas, he will reject at the outset what it renders evident as one-sided, nay, he will deny it and shut his eyes to it, so that his preconceived ideas may remain unaffected.
— from Essays of Schopenhauer by Arthur Schopenhauer

So home and to dinner, where I confess, reflecting upon the ease and plenty that I live in, of money, goods, servants, honour, every thing, I could not but with hearty thanks to
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

and as he turned away, it seemed to me that he was more nearly moved by the softer human emotions than I had ever seen him.
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

She turned away with looks fixed fast on the ground, stirred no more in countenance by the speech he essays than if she stood in iron flint or Marpesian stone.
— from The Aeneid of Virgil by Virgil

Thunder-showers had been tolerably frequent of late, and I was not much afraid of a failure; still, I shouldn’t have cared for a delay of a day or two; I should have explained that I was busy with affairs of state yet, and the people must wait.
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

She wilfully shut her eyes to its absurdity for a month, then changed her simile.
— from Sons of the Morning by Eden Phillpotts

Though some in the days of the apostles, and others since have endeavored to introduce a multitude of legal burdens, as if they envied God the expressions of his goodness, or thought him guilty of too much remissness, in taking off the yoke, and treating man too favorably.
— from The Existence and Attributes of God, Volumes 1 and 2 by Stephen Charnock

They were arrayed gorgeously, her neighbor across in lavender silk, her elbow traveller in black with a profusion of cheap lace round the ash colored V of exposed skin: Eleanor wished the woman had powdered all the way down.
— from The Freebooters of the Wilderness by Agnes C. Laut

“What can happen, what should happen, except that I shall have a dull summer, and shall be very glad when Christmas and Dick come together;” 42 and then she shook her little basket of housekeeping keys until they jingled merrily, and ran downstairs with a countenance she meant to keep bright for the rest of the day.
— from Not Like Other Girls by Rosa Nouchette Carey

“Oh, that's hardly a yarn, Miss Norah,” he said, his eyes twinkling in a way that made them look astonishingly young, despite his white hair and his wrinkles.
— from A Little Bush Maid by Mary Grant Bruce

We should have expected this, if we are really Christians.
— from Sermons for the Times by Charles Kingsley

she cried wildly; and then stopped short and stared at me; while I stared, too, feeling, whoever it might be she had expected, that I was not the person.
— from Neighbours on the Green by Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant

"Miss Scarse," said he, entreatingly, "this is not the wooing I care for.
— from A Traitor in London by Fergus Hume

I do not see, how ever, that it can do harm, and I wish to show you, that I am not ignorant of some of your trials.
— from Alone by Marion Harland