Lizzy is not a bit better than the others; and I am sure she is not half so handsome as Jane, nor half so good-humoured as Lydia.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I suppose I never had time.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

A Life of the Author and all his recovered Letters, sixteen in number, have also been given; but, as regards the correspondence, it can scarcely be doubted that it is in a purely fragmentary state.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

I believe his house was rotting somewhere near by, though I’ve never seen it, not having been far enough in that direction.
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

—But this stench is not, horrible though it is, the greatest physical torment to which the damned are subjected.
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

shall I never have the pleasure of embracing you before death?
— from Letters of Abelard and Heloise To which is prefix'd a particular account of their lives, amours, and misfortunes by Héloïse

Vos data facultate vobis consulite.’ 15 Simul in niedios hostes irrupit, duobusque interfectis reliquos a porta paulum submovit.
— from Helps to Latin Translation at Sight by Edmund Luce

I am but shadow of myself; / You are deceived, my substance is not here.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

Deeds with them came before words, and if they honoured poverty they themselves seem first to have scorned inherited wealth; if they cultivated modesty, they themselves first practised plain living in every respect; if they tried to expel from the lives of other men the element of theatrical display and arrogance, they themselves first set the example by living in the open market places and the temple precincts, and they opposed luxury by their own practice before they did so in words; nor did they shout aloud but proved by their actions that a man may rule as the equal of Zeus if he needs nothing or very little and so is not hampered by his body; and they reproved sinners during the lifetime of those who had offended but did not speak ill of the dead; for when men are dead even their enemies, at least the more moderate, make peace with the departed.
— from The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 2 by Emperor of Rome Julian

This new star is not, however, the first of such objects to have been discovered “accidentally”; many of the others were found just as much by chance, though a notable exception must be made of those discovered at the Harvard Observatory, which are the result of a deliberate search for such bodies by the careful examination of photographic plates.
— from Astronomical Discovery by H. H. (Herbert Hall) Turner

While perplexed and hesitating, the old man discovers that a large sum in notes has been abstracted from his hoard.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 92, June, 1865 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various

Cornelia (then eight or ten years old), going up stairs, involuntarily expressed aloud some feelings which possessed her bosom on the occasion, by saying, "I never had a silk dress in my life."
— from The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson Compiled From Family Letters and Reminiscences by Sarah N. (Sarah Nicholas) Randolph

And shall I not have to pay the damage for detaining that child in my service as a slave?
— from The Impending Crisis of the South How to Meet It by Hinton Rowan Helper

It wasn't very big and it seemed in no hurry to get away.
— from Black Eyes and the Daily Grind by Stephen Marlowe

We have succeeded in obtaining the services——" Of whom he had succeeded in obtaining the services I never heard, for the rougher section of the audience rose at him like a menacing wave!
— from The Golden Scorpion by Sax Rohmer

shall I not hear?
— from The Story of the Hymns and Tunes by Hezekiah Butterworth

I never—— I was going to say I never have.
— from Young Earnest: The Romance of a Bad Start in Life by Gilbert Cannan