Then the King thought, "I can easily do that, Hans the Hedgehog understands nothing, and I can write what I like."
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Wilhelm Grimm

It is an uncommon name, and I should not have been likely to forget it.’
— from The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie

[2098] summos saepe viros transversos agit avaritia, et qui reliquis morum probitate praelucerent; hi facem praeferunt ad Simoniam, et in corruptionis hunc scopulum impingentes, non tondent pecus, sed deglubunt, et quocunque se conferunt, expilant, exhauriunt, abradunt, magnum famae suae, si non animae naufragium facientes; ut non ab infimis ad summos, sed a summis ad infimos malum promanasse videatur, et illud verum sit quod ille olim lusit, emerat ille prius, vendere jure potest.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

Its principles are quite different from those which underlie the kind of honor I have been treating until now, and in some respects are even opposed to them.
— from The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer: the Wisdom of Life by Arthur Schopenhauer

I was so entirely unacquainted with the subject that I understood nothing about it even then.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

He understood nothing about it; no doubt he had grumbled for awhile at having that dear little creature “taken from him” so hastily; he should have liked to keep her two or three days longer, out of tenderness; but her “grandfather” had come for her in the most natural way in the world.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

We press him, dissolved in tears, my wife Creüsa, Ascanius, all our household, that our father involve us not all in his ruin, and add his weight to the sinking scale of doom.
— from The Aeneid of Virgil by Virgil

A violent uproar now arose in the entry, where my landlady was well cuffing her maid both with her fist and tongue.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

So that it seems to me, we have, from the observation of the operation of bodies by our senses, but a very imperfect obscure idea of ACTIVE power; since they afford us not any idea in themselves of the power to begin any action, either motion or thought.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 1 and 2 by John Locke

I, with a few others, had the good fortune to be washed ashore clinging to pieces of the wreck, for the storm had driven us near an island, and scrambling up beyond the reach of the waves we threw ourselves down quite exhausted, to wait for morning.
— from The Arabian Nights Entertainments by Andrew Lang

[177] The two cupolas over Cahors’ unaisled nave appear in the exterior view, but were not well enough constructed for their inner surfaces to be left uncovered by coats of plaster, whereas the interior masonry of St. Front is beautifully finished, proving that in point of time it was separated from St. Astier.
— from How France Built Her Cathedrals: A Study in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries by Elizabeth Boyle O'Reilly

But he spoke with moderation, standing under the British Flag on the platform, and at the last he said: “A flag not our own floats over us now; guarantees us against the malice of the world and assures us in our laws and religion; but there is another flag which in our tearful memories is as dear to us now as it was at Carillon and Levis.
— from The Lane That Had No Turning, Complete by Gilbert Parker

There lay the great landmarks, seen under new aspects, it is true, yet now sufficiently distinguishable.
— from Lost in the Fog by James De Mille

The hush, indeed, which was forced and unnatural, had grown with each step I took, until now, as I involuntarily paused to listen, the pulsation of my own heart was like the rapid beating on a drum, whilst I instinctively felt that numerous other beings were holding in their breath simultaneously with mine.
— from Ghostly Phenomena by Elliott O'Donnell

" "I beg your pardon, I——" "But I am as grown up now as I will ever be," I said.
— from Bab: A Sub-Deb by Mary Roberts Rinehart

A life insurance policy is usually not an insurance policy at all, but an assurance policy.
— from The American Language A Preliminary Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States by H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken

The Turkish empire remains not only intact, but will actually be found to have considerably increased in extent, if we include within it the territories of the Khedive of Egypt, whose arms have been carried to the Upper Nile and into Dar Fur.
— from The Earth and its inhabitants, Volume 1: Europe. Greece, Turkey in Europe, Rumania, Servia, Montenegro, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. by Elisée Reclus

When I fell at her [ 158 ] feet, after bathing and worshipping Gaṇeśa, she made me take off my clothes and perform, standing in a circle, a horrible ceremony in honour of Śiva in his terrific form, and after she had sprinkled me with water, she gave me various spells known to her, and human flesh to eat that had been offered in sacrifice to the gods; so, after I had eaten man’s flesh and had received the various spells, I immediately flew up, naked as I was, into the heaven with my friends, and after I had amused myself, I descended from the heaven by command of my teacher, and I, the princess, went to my own apartments.
— from The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story by active 11th century Somadeva Bhatta

She and Arthur evidently thought I had kept them from the famous painter’s notice until now, as, indeed, I had.
— from The Romance of His Life, and Other Romances by Mary Cholmondeley