These were the first signs of that new phase in my life upon which I entered from this day forth, and in which I accustomed myself to look upon the outward circumstances of my existence as being merely subservient to my will.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

As I was his eldest, and consequently his favourite son, he took more than ordinary care of my education.
— from Letters of Abelard and Heloise To which is prefix'd a particular account of their lives, amours, and misfortunes by Héloïse

For all along, from this Pont-de-Sommevelle Northeastward as far as Montmedi, at Post-villages and Towns, escorts of Hussars and Dragoons do lounge waiting: a train or chain of Military Escorts; at the Montmedi end of it our brave Bouille: an electric thunder-chain; which the invisible Bouille, like a Father Jove, holds in his hand—for wise purposes!
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

ilbury, to fix my attention, gently tipped with her tongue the outer chamber of my ear), the first is a bath...
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

Thus, in the first week, my great guard was to avoid every the least offense against Temperance , leaving the other virtues to their ordinary chance, only marking every evening the faults of the day.
— from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

I already knew that even in the ordinary condition of mind enthusiasm is a potent element with soldiers, but what I saw that day convinced me that if it can be excited from a state of despondency its power is almost irresistible.
— from Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, General, United States Army — Complete by Philip Henry Sheridan

I find this one copy of mine extraordinarily in the way."
— from Sinister Street, vol. 2 by Compton MacKenzie

And as to this I almost hoped not, for here had I, under cover of this veiled talk, been saying to her in effect: “Beryl, I am a ruined man, a beggar, but—how would it be to throw away the best years of your life and wait for me on the off chance of my ever being able to rise substantially above that most unenviable position?”
— from A Veldt Vendetta by Bertram Mitford

Hundreds of thousands of copies of my Emancipation have been printed and distributed.
— from Voices from the Past by Paul Alexander Bartlett

Hardly, as it seems to us, if the most glorious actions which are set like jewels in the history of mankind are weighed one against the other in the balance, hardly will those 300 Spartans who in the summer morning sate "combing their long hair—for death" in the passes of Thermopylae, have earned a more lofty estimate for themselves than this one crew of modern Englishmen.
— from Essays in Literature and History by James Anthony Froude

Mr. Thorpe married the only child of Mr. Earle, a banker in Philadelphia, who was the senior partner of Mrs. Foote’s son-in-law.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 23, April, 1876-September, 1876. A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science by Various

It was not that his physique warranted the work, but there seemed no way in the old country of making enough money to marry Lucy (much less to redeem mankind) on.
— from The King of Schnorrers: Grotesques and Fantasies by Israel Zangwill

At the outer corners of my eyes a place was preparing for a fine meshwork which would close up when I laughed.
— from Woman by Magdeleine Marx