Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken; but where, as in this case, though the conduct is mistaken, the feelings are not, it may not be very material.—Mr.
— from Emma by Jane Austen

She has experienced much anxiety; but she is now at length a little reassured, having sent her secretary away in order that nothing may happen unexpectedly.
— from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

It is a good joke for your worship to try and persuade me that everything these good books say is nonsense and lies, and they printed by the license of the Lords of the Royal Council, as if they were people who would allow such a lot of lies to be printed all together, and so many battles and enchantments that they take away one’s senses.” “I have told you, friend,” said the curate, “that this is done to divert our idle thoughts; and as in well-ordered states games of chess, fives, and billiards are allowed for the diversion of those who do not care, or are not obliged, or are unable to work, so books of this kind are allowed to be printed, on the supposition that, what indeed is the truth, there can be nobody so ignorant as to take any of them for true stories; and if it were permitted me now, and the present company desired it, I could say something about the qualities books of chivalry should possess to be good ones, that would be to the advantage and even to the taste of some; but I hope the time will come when I can communicate my ideas to some one who may be able to mend matters; and in the meantime, senor landlord, believe what I have said, and take your books, and make up your mind about their truth or falsehood, and much good may they do you; and God grant you may not fall lame of the same foot your guest Don Quixote halts on.” “No fear of that,” returned the landlord; “I shall not be so mad as to make a knight-errant of myself; for I see well enough that things are not now as they used to be in those days, when they say those famous knights roamed about the world.” Sancho had made his appearance in the middle of this conversation, and he was very much troubled and cast down by what he heard said about knights-errant being now no longer in vogue, and all books of chivalry being folly and lies; and he resolved in his heart to wait and see what came of this journey of his master’s, and if it did not turn out as happily as his master expected, he determined to leave him and go back to his wife and children and his ordinary labour.
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

"I may as well say it now as later, dearest," he resumed gently.
— from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy

All the industries at Tuskegee have been started in natural and logical order, growing out of the needs of a community settlement.
— from Up from Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington

Up, and having many businesses at the office to-day I spent all the morning there drawing up a letter to Mr. Coventry about preserving of masts, being collections of my own, and at noon home to dinner, whither my brother Tom comes, and after dinner I took him up and read my letter lately of discontent to my father, and he is seemingly pleased at it, and cries out of my sister’s ill nature and lazy life there.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

While I read the lips of a woman whose voice is soprano, I note a low tone or a glad tone in the midst of a high, flowing voice.
— from The World I Live In by Helen Keller

She is natural and lovable and lovely.
— from A True Friend: A Novel by Adeline Sergeant

This I saw my way clear in declining, believing that for Christ’s servants the sword is not a lawful defence; whatever it may be the Lord’s holy will I suffer, let it not be in acting against my convictions of his holy and blessed will, for though I feel as a sheep in the midst of wolves, the Lord does not allow my heart to be disturbed with any sense of personal insecurity.
— from Journal of a Residence at Bagdad During the Years 1830 and 1831 by Anthony Norris Groves

This structure is of so dubious an aspect that it places the stranger in a profound state of uncertainty as to whether it be the lobby of a criminal prison or a Methodist chapel; and the supposed stranger is not a little surprised when he learns, on inquiry, that this architectural mystery is neither more nor less than the Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors.
— from The Mysteries of London, v. 4/4 by George W. M. (George William MacArthur) Reynolds

She is not a lucky boat.'" "Have you sailed her long?"
— from All along the River: A Novel by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

Chateaubriand gives her a copy of his Génie du Christianisme before he has even distributed his presentation copies, and she is not a little proud when Madame de Staël finds this book upon her table.
— from Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature - 3. The Reaction in France by Georg Brandes

Next the people of Dinant came on the scene, invaded Namur and Luxembourg, burned many villages in the Ardennes, and slaughtered the villagers.
— from Belgium by George W. T. (George William Thomson) Omond

Had not England benefited equally by the telegraphic communication, and should it not at least pay equally?
— from A Beacon for the Blind: Being a Life of Henry Fawcett, the Blind Postmaster-General by Winifred Holt

It would be interesting to discover why, in this local version, the character called the “Abbot of Marham” was introduced into the play—Marham nunnery was situated in Norfolk, a long way from the usual forest scenes of Sherwood and Needwood.
— from The Annals of Willenhall by Frederick William Hackwood

The next day we discovered an English Drogger, manned with slaves, seventeen in number, and loaded with porter and cheese.
— from Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Paul Cuffe, a Pequot Indian, During Thirty Years Spent at Sea, and in Travelling in Foreign Lands by Paul Cuffe

After standing all day in this dull store I need a little recreation."
— from Making His Mark by Alger, Horatio, Jr.