Persuasion, by Jane Austen

Prettier musings of high-wrought love and eternal constancy, could never have passed along the streets of Bath, than Anne was sporting with from Camden-place to Westgate buildings. It was almost enough to spread purification and perfume all the way.

Paper Towns, by John Green

After all that hearing, he [Whitman] writes, "I am exposed....cut by bitter and poisoned hail." That was perfect, I thought; you listen to people so that you can imagine them, and you hear all the terrible and wonderful things people do to themselves and to one another, but in the end the listening exposes you even more than it exposes the people you're trying to listen to.

Rose Under Fire, by Elizabeth Wein

She barked an order at the guards. They'd sent extras, expecting a fight. She took hold of a dog's leash and started prowling among the first rows of silent, stubborn language professors and music teachers and widowed mothers and orphaned daughters, and projectionists and spies and bartenders and cleaning ladies and Resistance agents and Red Army soldiers and Girl Scout saboteurs. And taran pilots.

And, in our first real moments of glory, the lights went out.

I think, if there could be anything I am glad I was there for, it is that moment.

The Contrast, by Royall Tyler

MANLY: My dear Charlotte, I am happy that I once more enfold you within the arms of fraternal affection. I know you are going to ask (amiable impatience!) how our parents do,--the venerable pair transmit you their blessing by me--they totter on the verge of a well-spent life, and wish only to see their children settled in the world, to depart in peace.

The Fault In Our Stars, by John Green

The BiPAP essentially took control of my breathing away from me, which was intensely annoying, but the great thing about it was that it made all this noise, rumbling with each inhalation and whirring as I exhaled. I kept thinking that it sounded like a dragon breathing in time with me, like I had this pet dragon who was cuddled up next to me and cared enough about me to time his breaths to mine.

The Joy of Eating, Edited by Jill Foulston

We ate in perfect silence, first in shock, then in amazement, and then in gratitude that not only was there not enough to go around, but that nothing else was forthcoming. That was the entire meal.
--from Home Cooking, by Laurie Colwin

Among these forgotten terms are opsophagist 'frequenter of pastry shops'; symposiast 'one of a drinking party, banqueter'; pabulous 'abounding in food'; eubrotic 'good to eat'; orectic 'characterized by appetite or desire'; esculent 'good to eat'; deipnetic 'fond of eating'; pamphagous 'omnivorous'; coenaculous 'fond of suppers'; gulch 'to swallow hungrily'; and pinguedinize 'to make fat'...My current favorite would have to be supernaculum, a word referring to the act of drinking the very last drop from a glass or bottle.
--from Blooming English, by Kate Burridge

This Isn't the Sort of Thing that Happens to Someone Like You, by Jon McGregor

He wasn't naive; he knew when to say no. It was just that he didn't always think being spun a yarn was a good enough reason for not doing what he could to help. It's the desperate ones who come up with the best stories, he used to say, and Catherine had admired him for this, once, for his refusal to let cynicism accumulate with each knock at the church office door.