If my brother had been a man of activity and prudence, he might have left you a rich woman, ma’am: and if he had turned his son into the world, as my father turned me, when I wasn’t as old as that boy by a year and a half, he would have been in a situation to help you, instead of being a burden upon you, and increasing your distress.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

Would you really take such a burden upon you again? MISS TESMAN.
— from Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen

A shadow passed over the boy's face as he watched them, feeling that he ought to go away because uninvited; yet lingering because home seemed very lonely and this quiet party in the woods most attractive to his restless spirit.
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

“I don’t bathe every day,” he confided, “a bath uses you up like a fuller: water’s got teeth and your strength wastes away a little every day; but when I’ve downed a pot of mead, I tell the cold to suck my cock!
— from The Satyricon — Complete by Petronius Arbiter

Although, therefore, the standing miracle of this visible world is little thought of, because always before us, yet, when we arouse ourselves to contemplate it, it is a greater miracle than the rarest and most unheard-of marvels.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

—Here is some one who, you perceive, wishes to praise you: you bite your lips and brace up your heart:
— from The Dawn of Day by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

If you did wear a beard upon your chin, I’d shake it on this quarrel.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

In the very article, comes Captain Hoseason with the story of your drowning; whereupon all fell through; with no consequences but concern to Mr. Campbell, injury to my pocket, and another blot upon your uncle’s character, which could very ill afford it.
— from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

You don’t find that foreign birds and butterflies come and perch upon your crockery; you cannot be permitted to paint foreign birds and butterflies upon your crockery.
— from Hard Times by Charles Dickens

I have drawn a bill upon you, as per margin, and am, sir, your most obedt., humble servant, “ELIAS HOSEASON.”
— from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

“I must get her away from this attractive but undesirable young man!
— from Ladies-In-Waiting by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

This magnificent air ship, the result of twenty years of experiment, has since been abandoned and broken up; yet the sacrifice has not been without result.
— from The Dominion of the Air: The Story of Aerial Navigation by John M. (John Mackenzie) Bacon

Our American servants are more liberal, but now I realise that a good English servant is not so much an amateur as an American; but unless you wish to be unpleasantly enlightened as mistress, you must learn her line of duty well.
— from The Champagne Standard by Lane, John, Mrs.

And in the dark you must always be unless you have a full knowledge of "what is going forward on the stage."
— from Richard Wagner His Life and His Dramas A Biographical Study of the Man and an Explanation of His Work by W. J. (William James) Henderson

The fields were full of harvesters, reaping and binding up yellow sheaves, and barns were open all day, and boys might be seen within, storing up fruit for the winter.
— from The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3, March, 1852 by Various

As they unquestionably possess the mysterious power, whether voluntary or involuntary, of holding in their scent, for a short time after alighting, and are difficultly found again till they have run, I recommend it, as by far the better way, to mark them down well, and beat for another bevy, until you hear them calling to each other; then lose no time in flushing them again, when they are sure to disperse, and you to have sport with them.
— from Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXVII, No. 5, November 1850 by Various

Go in sideways, Willie the Duck; ye cannot go through a door frontways carrying a bundle under yer oxter.
— from The Rat-Pit by Patrick MacGill

If you say it is God, then you deny reason to man, make him a brute, unless you identify man with God.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 07, April 1868 to September, 1868 by Various

"I believe that if you were to ask the hand of Princess Hildegarde, their Majesties would cheerfully grant you their consent and bestow upon you a royal bride."
— from The Youth of the Great Elector by L. (Luise) Mühlbach

I have sworn that you shall kiss your children without a blush upon your face” (her voice faltered slightly).
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac