Whether it's the wash of the tide or no, I can't say.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

Science—the transformation of Nature into concepts for the purpose of governing Nature—that is part of the rubric means.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

‘The only name I could possibly care to know, to-night.’
— from Hard Times by Charles Dickens

Jeremie answered: “The other night I couldn't find the door—I had to be fished out of the ditch in front of the house!”
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

I a great while urged my unwillingnesse to take any, not knowing how I could serve Mr. Gauden, but left it wholly to himself; so at noon I find brought home in fine leather cases, a pair of the noblest flaggons that ever I saw all the days of my life; whether I shall keepe them or no I cannot tell; for it is to oblige me to him in the business of the Tangier victualling, wherein I doubt I shall not; but glad I am to see that I shall be sure to get something on one side or other, have it which will: so, with a merry heart, I looked upon them, and locked them up.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

The intention to-say-so-and-so is the only name it can receive.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James

But whether what you say is true or not I cannot as yet tell, although I make no doubt that you will prove the truth of your words.
— from Euthyphro by Plato

For the majority usually drift as the current of their own natural inclinations carries them; and in deriving counsel from one of these, we have to see not only what our adviser says, but also what he thinks, and what his reasons are for thinking as he does.
— from De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero

Pick over two quarts of beans, wash, and soak them over night in cold water.
— from Canoe and Camp Cookery A Practical Cook Book for Canoeists, Corinthian Sailors and Outers by Seneca (Writer on outdoor life)

Then, oh, Nettie, I could not hear it, so I put my fingers in both ears; and then she beat me, and left that place on my arm, and held both my hands while she made me listen.”
— from Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present Time by Fanny Fern

I have borne a rough outside, as thou knowest; but, in time of need, I can show the numbers of lives which I have been the means of saving, the property which I have restored to those who owned it, when, without my intercession, it would have been wantonly destroyed.
— from The Pirate Andrew Lang Edition by Walter Scott

Whether this is true or not, I cannot pretend to say.
— from Plain Words for Christ, Being a Series of Readings for Working Men by Reginald G. Dutton

Why, mum, look at the printed cottons now, an' what they was when you wore 'em,–why, you wouldn't put such a thing on now, I can see.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

No one, but Omniscience, can possibly know what degree of tensity our nature is capable of; nor precisely what degree is compatible with life, or with the most perfect health.
— from Doctrine of the Will by Asa Mahan

Then the officer next in command went over to see what had happened, and, finding my son dead, gave the order to advance.
— from The Great War As I Saw It by Frederick George Scott

During the prosperous period of the kingdom, the Bedawîn, and even the wild Ismaileh assassins, were reduced to tribute; and the confidence which the foreign rulers felt in their subjects is evinced by the institution of the Turcopoles, or native irregular cavalry, who were commanded by an officer known as Grand Turcopoler.
— from Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure by C. R. (Claude Reignier) Conder

Such petty industries are too often neglected in California, where every body still wants to conduct his calling on a grand scale, and where dozens of ways to prosperity, and even wealth, are constantly neglected, because they appear too slow.
— from Northern California, Oregon, and the Sandwich Islands by Charles Nordhoff