de Bonfons to wed with Marquis de Froidfond, a bankrupt widower of fifty odd years and possessed of numerous progeny.
— from Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z by Anatole Cerfberr

‘Would you tell me,’ said Alice, a little timidly, ‘why you are painting those roses?’
— from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

This Earth, God made it for you; "appointed paths in it;" you can live in it, go to and fro on it.—The clouds in the dry country of Arabia, to Mahomet they are very wonderful: Great clouds, he says, born in the deep bosom of the Upper Immensity, where do they come from!
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

“No, no politeness, I beg, for if you are polite, goodbye to nature.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

“Yes,” she answered, “but look how he didn’t order a mass said for the soul of his father, who undoubtedly needs it more than others.” “But, woman, haven’t you any pity?” “Pity for the excommunicated?
— from The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal

I HOPE you are prepared to receive with firmness most melancholy and painful intelligence.
— from The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Volume 01 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

After setting forth the conditions, he says, "Hear, O Jupiter; hear, O pater patratus of the Alban people, and ye, Alban people, hear.
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy

Beatty knew when to yield a point—so he flattered himself.
— from Daisy Herself by Will E. Ingersoll

The caliph would fain have sent Noureddin back to Balsora to have been king there; but Noureddin humbly [69] begged to be excused from accepting the offer, saying, Commander of the true believers, the city of Balsora, after the misfortunes that have happened to me there, is so much my aversion, and will always continue to be so, that I beseech your majesty to give me leave to keep the oath I have made of never returning thither again: and I shall think it my greatest glory to do you some services near your royal person, if you are pleased to do me the honour.
— from The Arabian Nights, Volume 3 (of 4) by Anonymous

Yes, Allah punishes the insolent.
— from Mohammed Ali and His House by L. (Luise) Mühlbach

Between husband and wife there was perfect love, and in his newly born happiness, Richard forgot the ailments which had sent him an invalid to Clifton, while Ethie, surrounded by every luxury which love could devise or money procure, and made each hour to feel how dear she was to those from whom she had been so long estranged, grew fresh, and young, and pretty again; so that when, early in December, Mrs. Dr. Van Buren came to Davenport to see her niece, she found her more beautiful far than she had been in her early girlhood, when the boyish Frank had paid his court to her.
— from Ethelyn's Mistake by Mary Jane Holmes

“Therein you are partly right and partly wrong, my friend.
— from The Pathfinder; Or, The Inland Sea by James Fenimore Cooper

I will show you a path I have discovered under the beeches.
— from Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1905 to 1906 by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

I like a joke as well as you do, but it is no fun to have your legs nipped when you are pushing a heavy wagon.
— from Tum Tum, the Jolly Elephant: His Many Adventures by Richard Barnum

It was a cholera year and people were dying by the hundreds daily.
— from Nathaniel Parker Willis by Henry A. (Henry Augustin) Beers