,” said Widow Carey stirring her tea, “but I have been down this time longer than I can ever remember.”
— from Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield

for aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth:
— from A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

I saw that I could easily raise my bushel or two of rye and Indian corn, for the former will grow on the poorest land, and the latter does not require the best, and grind them in a hand-mill, and so do without rice and pork; and if I must have some concentrated sweet, I found by experiment that I could make a very good molasses either of pumpkins or beets, and I knew that I needed only to set out a few maples to obtain it more easily still, and while these were growing I could use various substitutes beside those which I have named.
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

I said I owed him more obligations than I could ever repay, and held him in a higher admiration than I could ever express.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

C. Plinii Caecilii Secundi Epistulæ ad Traianum Imperatorem cum Eiusdem Responsis.
— from On the Sublime by active 1st century Longinus

This is the first time I could ever really claim that.
— from Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

Do you think I could ever relish that happiness which was acquired by lessening yours? MARLOW.
— from She Stoops to Conquer; Or, The Mistakes of a Night: A Comedy by Oliver Goldsmith

“In faith, then, I cannot even read.” Master Nicholas here called out to them to wait a while, as they wanted to halt and drink at a little spring there was there.
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Of course, I knew well enough that I should not succeed, but I knew likewise that I could easily reconcile Franzia and Capitani to a failure, by inventing some excellent reasons for our want of success.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

I forced myself from my dream-like state, and amused myself by throwing them some of the golden, red fruit that I could easily reach.
— from Letters from My Windmill by Alphonse Daudet

But there was apparent the same quiet air of gaiety, the same good humour which fine feathers bring, and, truth to tell, less ennui and more undisguised enjoyment than I can ever remember.
— from Berry and Co. by Dornford Yates

After having once indulged the idea that I could easily rob him, and make myself master of the property he had on his person, I could not again banish it from my mind.
— from Flora Lyndsay; or, Passages in an Eventful Life, Vol. II. by Susanna Moodie

[65] Oddly enough none of the supporters of opposing theories have replied to his arguments; instead they have sought evidence from other regions to show that ice cannot erode rock to an important degree.
— from The Andes of Southern Peru Geographical Reconnaissance along the Seventy-Third Meridian by Isaiah Bowman

"Your kindness is more than I can ever repay!"
— from Out of the Primitive by Robert Ames Bennet

"This is Captain Estcourt, R.F.A., speaking.
— from The Retreat from Mons By one who shared in it by Arthur Corbett-Smith

The admiral selected me, not from any merit on my part, but because he knows that my boat is one of the fastest on the lagoons, and that I can easily run away from any of the Genoese rowboats.
— from The Lion of Saint Mark: A Story of Venice in the Fourteenth Century by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

“There is considerable external resemblance between this and A. campestris.
— from Toadstools, mushrooms, fungi, edible and poisonous; one thousand American fungi How to select and cook the edible; how to distinguish and avoid the poisonous, with full botanic descriptions. Toadstool poisons and their treatment, instructions to students, recipes for cooking, etc., etc. by Charles McIlvaine

I owe you for mair pleasure and happiness, than I can ever return.”
— from Christine: A Fife Fisher Girl by Amelia E. Barr