Would that I had been killed on the day when the Trojans were pressing me so sorely about the dead body of Achilles, for then I should have had due burial and the Achaeans would have honoured my name; but now it seems that I shall come to a most pitiable end.
— from The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original by Homer

I saw him move for the first time when Pesca moved, so as not to lose sight of the little man in the lower position in which he now stood.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

If I seem so happy to you, you could never say anything that would please me so much.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Of the time of ignorance which preceded Mahomet, seventeen hundred battles 36 are recorded by tradition: hostility was imbittered with the rancor of civil faction; and the recital, in prose or verse, of an obsolete feud, was sufficient to rekindle the same passions among the descendants of the hostile tribes.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

Naturally, enemy and allied peoples would pay more serious heed to communications from Americans to Americans than they would to materials which they knew had been concocted for themselves.
— from Psychological Warfare by Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger

And then, you, you come; you are certainly obliged to preserve order, you lead off the woman who is in the wrong; but on reflection, since you are a good man, you say that I am to be set at liberty; it is for the sake of the little one, for six months in prison would prevent my supporting my child.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

If profit mixed with pleasure may suffice T’ extol an author’s worth above the skies, Thou certainly for both must praised be: I know it; for thy judgment hath in the Contexture of this book set down such high Contentments, mingled with utility, That (as I think)
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

This was my good fortune, which procured me some pleasure without leading to anything solid.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

If the reader remembers what I heard her say about music as she was leaving the opera, he will pronounce my speech to have been a very courtier-like one, and I confess it was; but who can resist making such speeches to a monarch, and above all, a monarch in petticoats?
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Small tartelettes filled with Italian salad and covered with pink mayonnaise sauce.
— from The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book by Victor Hirtzler

" "You will pardon me," said Monsieur de Boisdhyver, "for having begun without you?" "Oh, certainly," said Tom; "Don't know what was the matter, but I slept unusually soundly last night; that is, after I got to sleep, for the storm kept me awake for hours.
— from The Inn at the Red Oak by Latta Griswold

The Curé, standing in front of him, raised his right hand, made the sign of the cross, and in a slow and solemn voice pronounced the Latin words which purify men's souls, but before they were finished the old man was shaken by a rapid shock, as if something had broken inside him; he no longer breathed.
— from The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 1 Boule de Suif and Other Stories by Guy de Maupassant

There is one other person of whom passing mention should be made, if for no other reason than because his name will appear from time to time in this narrative.
— from Fighting in Flanders by E. Alexander (Edward Alexander) Powell

There are few situations which provide more scope for meditation than that of the man penned up on a small balcony a considerable distance from the ground, with his only avenue of retreat cut off behind him.
— from A Damsel in Distress by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse

For the formation of ponds, and the retention of water, in so dry a climate, we see here something between the ordinary character of rivers, and artificial works which man must construct, when population may spread into these regions.
— from Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia, in Search of a Route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria (1848) by T. L. (Thomas Livingstone) Mitchell

Mince cold roast beef, fat and lean, very fine, add chopped onion, pepper, salt, and a little good gravy, fill scollop shells two parts full, and fill them up with potatos mashed smooth with cream, put a bit of butter on the top, and set them in an oven to brown.
— from The Virginia Housewife Or Methodical Cook by Mary Randolph

For, should the giant awake during the operations which were contemplated, he would probably make short work of Hans and his six followers; and thus, in attempting 162 to achieve the freedom of their people, they would emphatically have walked out of the frying-pan into the fire.
— from River Legends; Or, Father Thames and Father Rhine by Brabourne, Edward Hugessen Knatchbull-Hugessen, Baron