" His words excited my curiosity to the highest pitch.
— from The Arabian Nights Entertainments by Andrew Lang

If you are really the Count de Melvil, you will excuse my caution.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

Like some horse breakers, noted for their skill, who ride the best horses in the country without expense, Mr. Covey could have under him, the most fiery bloods of the neighborhood, for the simple reward of returning them to their owners, well broken .
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass

Will could not omit Thorwaldsen, a living celebrity about whom even Mr. Casaubon inquired, but before the day was far advanced he led the way to the studio of his friend Adolf Naumann, whom he mentioned as one of the chief renovators of Christian art, one of those who had not only revived but expanded that grand conception of supreme events as mysteries at which the successive ages were spectators, and in relation to which the great souls of all periods became as it were contemporaries.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

“You will excuse my calling so late,” she began, and then, suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms about my wife’s neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder.
— from Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Illustrated by Arthur Conan Doyle

‘Toad Hall,’ said the Toad proudly, ‘is an eligible self-contained gentleman’s residence very unique; dating in part from the fourteenth century, but replete with every modern convenience.
— from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Further qualifications of the duty of fidelity to promises, the consideration of which is involved in more difficulty and dispute, are suggested when we examine more closely the conditions under which promises are made, and the consequences of executing them.
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick

For although he refrained from giving a full account of their wickedness, through fear of offending, not themselves but their worshippers, for whom he was writing, yet he sufficiently indicated to discerning readers what opinion he had of them; for only in the one article of the eternity of their bodies does he assimilate them to the gods, all of whom, he asserts, are good and blessed, and absolutely free from what he himself calls the stormy passions of the demons; and as to the soul, he quite plainly affirms that they resemble men and not the gods, and that this resemblance lies not in the possession of wisdom, which even men can attain to, but in the perturbation of passions which sway the foolish and wicked, but is so ruled by the good and wise that they prefer not to admit rather than to conquer it.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

That which each man can do best, not but his Maker can teach him.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

She went away quite satisfied to find Father Paul at the very earliest opportunity, and to deliver to him with empressement Mrs. Costello's invitation.
— from A Canadian Heroine, Volume 3 A Novel by Coghill, Harry, Mrs.

From this road the views were even more charming than those which we had previously admired; for beneath us lay a complete panorama of Adelaide and its suburbs, covering part of the rich plain at the foot of the opposite blue hills, and skirted by the north arm of the Port river.
— from The Last Voyage: To India and Australia, in the 'Sunbeam' by Annie Brassey

The political opinions of Jay were obnoxious to a large party of his countrymen; but had we not so many examples in history and experience of the blind prejudice and malicious injustice generated by faction, it would seem incredible, as we contemplate, in the impartial light of retrospective truth, his character and career, that any imaginable diversity of views on questions of state policy, could have bred such false and fierce misconstruction in reference to one whose every memory challenges such entire respect and disinterested admiration.
— from The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 3, September 1864 Devoted To Literature And National Policy by Various

Mr. Mahaffy, however, makes an exception in favour of the eminent specialist and tells us that intelligent questions addressed to an astronomer, or a pure mathematician, will elicit many curious facts which will pleasantly beguile the time.
— from Reviews by Oscar Wilde

These states were scarcely more than what we English might call sovereign urban districts.
— from In the Fourth Year: Anticipations of a World Peace by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

The covenant was epitomized in one brief word: “I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee .”—v.
— from A Bible History of Baptism by Samuel J. (Samuel John) Baird

I told them what I had observed when I sailed round the island in my former progress; how that, on the northernmost point of the island, there were several very good harbours and roads for our ships; that the natives were even more civil and tractable, if possible, than those where we were, not having been so often ill-treated by European sailors as those had in the south and east sides; and that we might always be sure of a retreat, if we were driven to put in by any necessity, either of enemies or weather.
— from The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton by Daniel Defoe

"The visit will embrace major cities of the State including Dallas."
— from Warren Commission (04 of 26): Hearings Vol. IV (of 15) by United States. Warren Commission

I sanna brag what effect my curse will have, but I shall say this, that either your master, or ony o' his men, had as good have auld Patie Maxwell's blessing as his curse ony time, Jacobite and Roman Catholic though he be."
— from The Shepherd's Calendar. Volume I (of II) by James Hogg