She was pale and distraught, ate hardly anything, and her faculties were subjected to a strain so extraordinary that I thought she would not escape a serious, perhaps a fatal illness.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

Pantagruel made them a short speech, entreating them to behave themselves bravely in case they were attacked; for he could not yet believe that the Chitterlings were so treacherous; but he bade them by no means to give the first offence, giving them Carnival for the watchword.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

‘Just as I thought,’ said I to myself: ‘the lady’s temper is none of the mildest, notwithstanding her sweet, pale face and lofty brow, where thought and suffering seem equally to have stamped their impress.’
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

These things, indeed, took place in the city of Nineveh, but they also signified something else too great to apply to that
— from The City of God, Volume II by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

As some wooded mountain-spur that stretches across a plain will turn water and check the flow even of a great river, nor is there any stream strong enough to break through it—even so did the two Ajaxes face the Trojans and stem the tide of their fighting though they kept pouring on towards them and foremost among them all was Aeneas son of Anchises with valiant Hector.
— from The Iliad by Homer

' 'You deserve them already, sir,' said Emily; 'the wish deserves my warmest thanks.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

there again!' said she, endeavouring to raise herself, while her starting eyes seemed to follow some object round the room—'Come from the grave!
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

For one moment the visitor paused on the threshold, and smilingly surveyed Eugene; then, crossing the room on tiptoes, he laid his hand upon the prince's shoulder.
— from Prince Eugene and His Times by L. (Luise) Mühlbach

It is said to be when an oyster gets restless or uneasy that a strange substance enters the edge of the shell, and after a time a pearl is formed.
— from Lord Dolphin by Harriet A. (Harriet Anna) Cheever

After some talk with these gentlemen she withdrew, leaving me to entertain them, and saying, ‘Speak English to my daughter; you will find she speaks it very well.’
— from History of Frederick the Second, Called Frederick the Great. by John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott

A few simple suggestions may aid in preventing the trouble from progressing rapidly to a serious stage, even though these suggestions do not eradicate the disorder altogether.
— from Stammering, Its Cause and Cure by Benjamin Nathaniel Bogue

Eagerly following the trail they finally learned that a small steamer expected to leave Rotterdam for Antwerp an hour after noon that same day.
— from The Boy Scouts on War Trails in Belgium; Or, Caught Between Hostile Armies by Carter, Herbert, active 1909-1917

These and similar sentiments express truths forced everywhere on man’s notice, and which may be looked for in many countries, and under many religions.
— from Roman Sepulchral Inscriptions Their Relation to Archæology, Language, and Religion by John Kenrick