By the duke’s unexpected announcement that he should take Penn with him into his own ship, Rupert and Sandwich at once discovered that they would be really and practically under Penn’s command in everything.”] because of his service heretofore in the Dutch warr which I am confident is by some strong obligations he hath laid upon Mr. Coventry; for Mr. Coventry must needs know that he is a man of very mean parts, but only a bred seaman: Going home in coach with Sir W. Batten he told me how Sir J. Minnes by the means of Sir R. Ford was the last night brought to his house and did discover the reason of his so long discontent with him, and now they are friends again, which I am sorry for, but he told it me so plainly that I see there is no thorough understanding between them, nor love, and so I hope there will be no great combination in any thing, nor do I see Sir J. Minnes very fond as he used to be.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

He will suffer if he is sorry for his victim.
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

They aim variously at ( a ) wealth, or ( b ) rank, or ( c ) sovereignty, or ( d ) glory, or ( e ) pleasure, because they think thereby to attain either ( a ) contentment, ( b ) reverence, ( c ) power, ( d ) renown, or ( e ) gladness of heart, in one or other of which they severally imagine happiness to consist.—CH.
— from The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius

I cannot but think it a little strange that having been so civil to him as I have been he should not invite me to dinner, but I believe it was but a sudden motion, and so I heard not of it.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

The other, whose appearance particularly struck Pierre, was a long, lank, round-shouldered, fair-haired man, slow in his movements and with an idiotic expression of face.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Lorenzo felt this circumstance less forcibly, since it had always been his idea that his Sister had perished by unfair means.
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis

She interrupted him to ask if he remembered the name of the author whose book she had bought the week before to send to a friend in Geneva.
— from The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin

“Let him be shown in here,” said Mrs. Irwine, taking up her knitting.
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot

His severe illness had hindered all preparations for his removal thither; but it had become necessary that he should go and overlook its contents, as administrator to his mother's little property; for which purpose he decided to pass the next night on the premises.
— from The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

Every fellow knows Phin—and likes him; in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had more influence than any chap here.
— from The Spirit of the School by Ralph Henry Barbour

Can an author with reason complain that he is cramped and shackled, if he is not at liberty to publish blasphemy, bawdry, or sedition?
— from Letters to His Son, 1749 On the Fine Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman by Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of

In Monte Carlo even royalty mingles with the crowd, and so it happened that later in the day I encountered His Majesty strolling along in a smart gray suit, with an Alpine hat and stick, looking for all the world like some prosperous American banker seeing Europe on a vacation.
— from Geraldine Farrar: The Story of an American Singer by Geraldine Farrar

My wife wavered, in a manner that showed me that I had been on the verge of a family picnic, and I said I had heard that there was whooping-cough there too.
— from Further Experiences of an Irish R.M. by E. Oe. (Edith Oenone) Somerville

The works of the early French printers generally are objects of special interest; he has, for example, about 400 volumes printed by Sebastian Gryphius, at Lyons, from 1528 to 1556.
— from The Book-Hunter in London Historical and Other Studies of Collectors and Collecting by W. (William) Roberts

I have tried—you know I have tried—to like the Princess; but something in her—I don't know what it is—repels me.
— from Ziska: The Problem of a Wicked Soul by Marie Corelli

What would Mr Brandreth say if he found her knocked up and wearied the next day—Wednesday, too, the day before the move to Romary, for which all her strength would be required?
— from Hathercourt by Mrs. Molesworth

Entering the Leeambye, Dr Livingstone proceeded up that stream in his canoe, while his oxen and a portion of his men continued their journey along its banks.
— from Great African Travellers: From Mungo Park to Livingstone and Stanley by William Henry Giles Kingston