But at least learn your inability to believe, since reason brings you to this, and yet you cannot believe.
— from Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal

Observando la decisión del muchacho, avergonzóse D. José de haber sentido miedo, o cuando menos un poco de respeto a los ladrones, y exclamó, espoleando la jaca: 15 —Pues allá iremos todos.
— from Doña Perfecta by Benito Pérez Galdós

It might as well be—it seems as if it happened in another life lived years ago—and everybody has forgotten it but me.
— from Rilla of Ingleside by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

And I’ve left my business to look after itself—I’m in the washing and laundering line, you must know, ma’am—and I’ve left my young children to look after themselves, and a more mischievous and troublesome set of young imps doesn’t exist, ma’am; and I’ve lost all my money, and lost my way, and as for what may be happening to my married daughter, why, I don’t like to think of it, ma’am!’
— from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

These "majority truths" are like last year's cured meat—like rancid, tainted ham; and they are the origin of the moral scurvy that is rampant in our communities.
— from An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen

A little later Yegorushka, half asleep, heard Solomon in a hoarse hollow voice choked with hatred, in hurried stuttering phrases, talking about the Jews.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

And I've left my business to look after itself—I'm in the washing and laundering line, you must know, ma'am—and I've left my young children to look after themselves, and a more mischievous and troublesome set of young imps doesn't exist, ma'am; and I've lost all my money, and lost my way, and as for what may be happening to my married daughter, why, I don't like to think of it, ma'am!"
— from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Mr. Brown of Calaveras essayed an archness of glance to cover his confusion, which his weak face and whiskey-muddled intellect but poorly carried out, and said,— “D—n it, Jack, a man must have a little liberty, you know.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales With Condensed Novels, Spanish and American Legends, and Earlier Papers by Bret Harte

And a prince should guard himself, above all things, against being despised and hated; and liberality leads you to both.
— from The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli

The birches with their sticky green leaves were motionless, and lilac-colored flowers and the first blades of green grass were pushing up and lifting last year’s leaves.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

"My lord," cried Countess Lamotte, with a loud laugh, "you are not driven to the necessity of involving the queen in dishonorable love- adventures.
— from Marie Antoinette and Her Son by L. (Luise) Mühlbach

THE SHEPHERDESS A PORTRAIT THE WIFE "TRUSTY, DUSKY, VIVID, TRUE" THE SHRINE THE VOICE MOTHER AD MATREM C. L. M. STEPPING WESTWARD STEPPING WESTWARD A FAREWELL TO ARMS THE WORLD "WHEN THAT I WAS AND A LITTLE TINY BOY" OF THE LAST VERSES IN THE BOOK A LAMENT TOMORROW LATE WISDOM YOUTH AND AGE THE OLD MAN'S COMFORTS TO AGE LATE LEAVES YEARS THE RIVER OF LIFE "LONG TIME A CHILD" THE WORLD I AM PASSING THROUGH TERMINUS RABBI BEN EZRA HUMAN LIFE YOUNG AND OLD THE ISLE OF THE LONG AGO GROWING OLD PAST TWILIGHT YOUTH AND AGE
— from The Home Book of Verse — Volume 3 by Burton Egbert Stevenson

There a ship captain met me in the street, and eyeing me awhile, he said, 'For shame, young scamp, to go about begging, a clever-looking, active lad like you.
— from Luke Barnicott, and Other Stories by William Howitt

And Lyn likes you so much, Blachland, and her instinct’s never at fault.”
— from The Triumph of Hilary Blachland by Bertram Mitford

Dearest Harriet , I wrote you a long letter yesterday, which was no sooner finished than I tore it up....
— from Records of Later Life by Fanny Kemble

Even since then, there have come strange, small, inexplicable mistrustings of you, but now I throw them all away and trust you wholly, Monsieur Citizen Georges Meilbac!—I shall always think of you in those impossible garnishments of my poor great-uncle, and I persuade myself that he must have been a little like you.
— from The Two Vanrevels by Booth Tarkington

I’ve seen many a field spoiled by bad farmin’, an’, when yer muther calls my own hired men te help her ageän me; when a lad like you goes fightin’ young gentlemen aboot a lass; when yon Frenchified ninny eggs ye on te spend money like watter, an’ yer muther gies ye t’ brass next day te pay Mrs. Saumarez, lest it should reach my ears—why, I’ve coom te believe that my teachin’ is mistakken.”
— from The Revellers by Louis Tracy

“After the passengers heard what Fluff had done, they were naturally curious to know why a lad like you was living in such a place, and it became necessary to tell the story.
— from The Life Savers: A story of the United States life-saving service by James Otis