The lantern came at that moment, in the hands of Mrs. O’Flannigan, whose anxiety to know the amount of damage done by the assaulting roof had not prevented her waiting a judicious interval, after getting out of bed and lighting up, to see if the wind was done, now, up stairs, or had a larger contract.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain

He acknowledges the omnipotence and benevolence of God, confesses the limitations and imperfections of human knowledge, teaches humility in the presence of unanswerable problems, urges submission to Divine Providence, extols virtue as the true source of happiness, and love of man as an essential of virtue.
— from The Rape of the Lock and Other Poems by Alexander Pope

We can't be little playmates any longer, but we will be brother and sister, to love and help one another all our lives, won't we, Laurie?" He did not say a word, but took the hand she offered him, and laid his face down on it for a minute, feeling that out of the grave of a boyish passion, there had risen a beautiful, strong friendship to bless them both.
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

To others I alleged my ill state of health, and left the court in the morning.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean Valjean had just attained his sixtieth birthday, the age of legal exemption; but he did not appear to be over fifty; moreover, he had no desire to escape his sergeant-major nor to quibble with Comte de Lobau; he possessed no civil status, he was concealing his name, he was concealing his identity, so he concealed his age, he concealed everything; and, as we have just said, he willingly did his duty as a national guard; the sum of his ambition lay in resembling any other man who paid his taxes.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

To M r R. W. A23 , W: printed here for the first time Note To M r C. B. T HY friend, whom thy deserts to thee enchaine, Urg'd by this unexcusable occasion, Thee and the Saint of his affection Leaving behinde, doth of both wants complaine; 5 And let the love I beare to both sustaine No blott nor maime by this division, Strong is this love which ties our hearts in one, And strong that love pursu'd with amorous paine; But though besides thy selfe I leave behind 10 Heavens liberall, and earths thrice-fairer Sunne, Going to where sterne winter aye doth wonne, Yet, loves hot fires, which martyr my sad minde, Doe send forth scalding sighes, which have the Art To melt all Ice, but that which walls her heart.
— from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts by John Donne

Society—nay, life itself, derives more profit from such a deed than from any sort of life spent in renunciation, anæmia and other virtues,—at least the suicide frees others from the sight of him, at least he removes one objection against life.
— from The Twilight of the Idols; or, How to Philosophize with the Hammer. The Antichrist Complete Works, Volume Sixteen by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

His body was transparent; so that Scrooge, observing him, and looking through his waistcoat, could see the two buttons on his coat behind.
— from A Christmas Carol in Prose; Being a Ghost Story of Christmas by Charles Dickens

A stonemason once had a large number of cubic blocks of stone in his yard, all of exactly the same size.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney

But he scarcely realizes the significance of his substitution, and he gives an inadequate account of the significance of higher and lower.
— from A Handbook of Ethical Theory by George Stuart Fullerton

One must be safer by one’s self;” and stretching out his arms like a tight-rope dancer, he came down cautiously, stepped on to the bridge and slowly walked across, the Indian following at a trot, as if astonished at any body finding so good a pathway difficult.
— from Real Gold: A Story of Adventure by George Manville Fenn

But he wasn’t far gone till she was in sight of him again, leaving her boy behind.
— from The Lilac Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

His heart was set on having a loggia or sun-parlour; and when it seemed that he would have to sacrifice this apple of his eye through lack of funds, he threw discretion to the winds, hauled out Captain Stormfield and made the old tar pay the piper.
— from Mark Twain by Archibald Henderson

At this vernal season of life no fault is irreparable, and Hymen will come forth from the bosom of experiences, armed with confidence, stripped of hatred, and love in marriage will be justified, because it will have had the privilege of comparison.
— from Analytical Studies by Honoré de Balzac

Then she would clasp herself close—afraid to stretch out her arms, lest she should be seen.
— from The Dark Flower by John Galsworthy

She got up, and stretched out her arms longingly.
— from The Undying Past by Hermann Sudermann

Below the stump of his amputated leg the red flannel leg of his drawers was tied into a knot.
— from The Turn of the Balance by Brand Whitlock

“I don’t know––at least, he always spoke of her as ‘Lallie.’
— from The Phantom Lover by Ruby M. (Ruby Mildred) Ayres