"Well, dear, what is the 'dem'd total,' as Mr. Mantalini says?"
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

Prithee, speak: Falseness cannot come from thee; for thou look’st Modest as Justice, and thou seem’st a palace For the crown’d Truth to dwell in: I will believe thee, And make my senses credit thy relation To points that seem impossible; for thou look’st Like one I loved indeed.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

What these persons advance might probably be true, if the supreme good was certainly theirs who plunder and use violence to others: but it is [1325b] most unlikely that it should be so; for it is a mere supposition: for it does not follow that their actions are honourable who thus assume the supreme power over others, without they were by nature as superior to them as a man to a woman, a father to a child, a master to a slave: so that he who so far forsakes the paths of virtue can never return back from whence he departed from them: for amongst equals whatever is fair and just ought to be reciprocal; for this is equal and right; but that equals should not partake of what is equal, or like to like, is contrary to nature: but whatever is contrary to nature is not right; therefore, if there is any one superior to the rest of the community in virtue and abilities for active life, him it is proper to follow, him it is right to obey, but the one alone will not do, but must be joined to the other also: and, if we are right in what we have now said, it follows that happiness consists in virtuous activity, and that both with respect to the community as well as the individual an active life is the happiest: not that an active life must necessarily refer to other persons, as some think, or that those studies alone are practical which are pursued to teach others what to do; for those are much more so whose final object is in themselves, and to improve the judgment and understanding of the man; for virtuous activity has an end, therefore is something practical; nay, those who contrive the plan which others follow are more particularly said to act, and are superior to the workmen who execute their designs.
— from Politics: A Treatise on Government by Aristotle

But, in truth, I'm also a person of the most ordinary run, and there are many more superior to me, yea very many!
— from Hung Lou Meng, or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel, Book I by Xueqin Cao

As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat.
— from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

In their eagerness, sometimes, to show their contempt for the feeling, they proved that they had not entirely recovered from it; often illustrating the saying, in their conduct, that a man may “stand up so straight as to lean backward.”
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass

She was rather elegantly dressed and notwithstanding her gentle looks this appearance of gayety had disconcerted me; but her good-nature, the compassionate tone of her voice, with her gentle and caressing manner, soon set me at ease with myself; I saw my endeavors to please were crowned with success, and this assurance made me succeed the more.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

They all met me, seeming as it were offended, that is, not exactly offended, but hurt—so hurt that it was simply....
— from White Nights and Other Stories The Novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Volume X by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

With many thanks, and many more self-reproaches for having on such slight grounds suspected one who in their very first conversation turned out such a different man from what he had supposed, Kit took the money and made the best of his way home.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

So again ye gods now grudge that a mortal man should dwell with me.
— from The Odyssey of Homer, Done into English Prose by Homer

I thought as my man said you were in a hurry you would rather come in here than wait for me.
— from Mrs. Vanderstein's jewels by Bryce, Charles, Mrs.

In the mean time a much more serious contest was taking place upon our left.
— from The March to Magdala by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

He turned and met me squarely, as I was about to walk by.
— from Anthony the Absolute by Samuel Merwin

Many are inhabited by beings, of whom some partake of our nature; some are of a nature and consistency entirely different to ours; some can only give effect to their will through a material medium; some possess creative powers, and can, by the sole exercise of will, invent the most lovely forms of beauty, and transmit themselves to immeasurable distances with the rapidity of thought.
— from Another World: Fragments from the Star City of Montalluyah by Benjamin Lumley

What is life to her that any merciful man should wish to prolong it?
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 23, April, 1876-September, 1876. A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science by Various

Now, in duels, where both parties shoot, it is generally the rule that a snap is a fire; and if such is the rule where the party has a right to fire back again, it seems to me unreasonable to say that a man may stand snapping at a defenceless turkey all day.
— from The Pioneers; Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna by James Fenimore Cooper