The King has accepted this Constitution, knowing beforehand that it will not serve: he studies it, and executes it in the hope mainly that it will be found inexecutable.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

“I’d give a thousand dollars to have my lungs back for five minutes.”
— from Martin Eden by Jack London

[Thoughtfully] He might possibly enter the army.
— from The Sea-Gull by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

We tell the patient that without further reflection he should put himself into a condition of calm self-observation and that he must then communicate whatever results this introspection gives him—feelings, thoughts, reminiscences, in the order in which they appear to his mind.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud

Fanny's last feeling in the visit was disappointment: for the shawl which Edmund was quietly taking from the servant to bring and put round her shoulders was seized by Mr. Crawford's quicker hand, and she was obliged to be indebted to his more prominent attention.
— from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

as that all that he stood upon, and sought after in this world, was barely this, that he might ever carry himself justly towards men, and holily towards the Gods.
— from Meditations by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius

The boy frequently returned to our hemisphere, sometimes by the way he had gone, sometimes by others; at first in company, and afterwards alone; and made himself known only to his mother, to whom he described what he had seen.
— from British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes

[the first] of July, in order that he might afterwards hire a house cheaper in the city.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

"I'll go to him myself to-morrow, and tell him that you wish Philip to come.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

To hold, mainteine and obserue this peace, the said earle and chancellour sware in the hand of the archbishop of Rouen with seuen barons on either part.
— from Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (06 of 12) Richard the First by Raphael Holinshed

In order to distract his thoughts he sought the tavern, and there he met Fat Ezekiel.
— from The Marvellous History of the Shadowless Man, and The Cold Heart by Adelbert von Chamisso

Last night I felt so feverish that I left my quarters and walked out, in hopes the keen frosty air would brace my nerves—I cannot tell how much I dislike going on, for I know you will hardly believe me.
— from Waverley; Or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since — Volume 2 by Walter Scott

One side of his face, the left side, had twitched upward so that there was a distinct slant to his mouth and an observably deep, curving line extending from the left lower corner of his nose.
— from Anthony the Absolute by Samuel Merwin

All I can tell you is, that as she went along through the quiet deserted street, all alone, she broke out softly singing to herself the words,— "No need of the sun in that day Which never is followed by night;" and that when she got home she ran upstairs quite briskly, and came in with a very placid face, and told her mother she had had a pleasant walk—which was perfectly true.
— from Little Nettie; or, Home Sunshine by Susan Warner

"I would like to have my old school-friend, Mignonette Klapper," said Pearl, groping nervously for her cigarette-case.
— from Mrs. Radigan: Her Biography, with that of Miss Pearl Veal, and the Memoirs of J. Madison Mudison by Nelson Lloyd

The young ones of a frog being in her absence crushed by the foot of a calf, when one of them had made his escape, he told his mother what a huge beast had dashed his brethren to pieces.
— from The Works of Horace by Horace

Just then the thought of another of his friends—one who had not yet been warned of what very important matter was to occur—came to his mind, and he hastened toward the old monkey's cage.
— from Toby Tyler; Or, Ten Weeks with a Circus by James Otis