I passed the greater part of the morning with him as much for my own instruction as his service; not that he ever permitted me to perform any menial office, but to copy, or write from his dictating; and my employment of secretary was more useful than that of scholar, and by this means I not only learned the Italian in its utmost purity, but also acquired a taste for literature, and some discernment of composition, which could not have been at La Tribu’s, and which was useful to me when I afterwards wrote alone.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I’m afraid this scandal about father may come to her ears; perhaps it has already.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Fifth of September T he extension provided for by the agent of Thomson & French, at the moment when Morrel expected it least, was to the poor shipowner so decided a stroke of good fortune that he almost dared to believe that fate was at length grown weary of wasting her spite upon him.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

But not a single one of them has ever painted a remarkable picture or composed a great opera!
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

"Dearest heart," whispered she, softly and rather sadly, when her lips were close to his ear, "prithee put off your journey until sunrise and sleep in your own bed to-night.
— from Mosses from an Old Manse, and Other Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Then the young man went in and sat down to warm his hands and feet, while he pictured to himself every possible accident.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

His intellectual content seemed to submit passively to it, and it fitted like a glove everything that had ever preceded it in his life.
— from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott (Francis Scott) Fitzgerald

The Beggar T he evening passed on; Madame de Villefort expressed a desire to return to Paris, which Madame Danglars had not dared to do, notwithstanding the uneasiness she experienced.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

In the year 729, comets appeared; the holy Egbert passed away; and Osric died. [ Ibid. ]
— from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England by Bede, the Venerable, Saint

For this his endless patience, what he himself [378] terms his “servile spirit,” [1261] was to some extent accountable.
— from Luther, vol. 3 of 6 by Hartmann Grisar

It turned out that the speeches of both Job and his friends were to him equally [Pg 229] disgusting.
— from What and Where is God? A Human Answer to the Deep Religious Cry of the Modern Soul by Richard La Rue Swain

His ambition pushed him once again towards his earlier political designs.
— from Honoré de Balzac by Louis Lumet

It is difficult to speak with certainty concerning the libraries, whether public or private, supposed to have existed previous to the fifteenth century, both on account of the doubtful authority and indefiniteness of the passages in which they are mentioned, and the custom which so readily obtained in those dark ages of dignifying with the name of library every petty collection of insignificant codices.
— from The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851 by Various

After they had eaten, Peter and Early Ann pulled up the hoops and pegs, gathered the balls and mallets in their arms.
— from Plowing On Sunday by Sterling North

You've always seemed to have enough personal acquaintance with the Devil and his works to make you understand the rest of us, and refrain from being too hard on us."
— from The Brown Study by Grace S. (Grace Smith) Richmond

94 It was no other than Arthur Cameron, whose beat adjoined that of Hugh and Billy and with whom they had exchanged passwords many times since going on duty.
— from The Boy Scouts for City Improvement by Robert Shaler

“You go as fast as horses can take you to the railway without having held any previous communication with this house, either personally or by letter.
— from No Name by Wilkie Collins

But the few memorials that have thus survived the lapse of ages enable us to form some idea of the multitudes that have entirely perished; and the petrified shell of the Ammonite, or the jointed arms of the Encrinite, are proofs of the existence of the world of tiny beings which served them for their nourishment and have been utterly swept away.
— from The Subterranean World by G. (Georg) Hartwig