When we were by ourselves we seemed to breathe again, and spoke to one another to relieve ourselves of the oppression which weighed on our minds.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

The white inhabitant of Ohio, who is obliged to subsist by his own exertions, regards temporal prosperity as the principal aim of his existence; and as the country which he occupies presents inexhaustible resources to his industry and ever-varying lures to his activity, his acquisitive ardor surpasses the ordinary limits of human cupidity: he is tormented by the desire of wealth, and he boldly enters upon every path which fortune opens to him; he becomes a sailor, a pioneer, an artisan, or a laborer with the same indifference, and he supports, with equal constancy, the fatigues and the dangers incidental to these various professions; the resources of his intelligence are astonishing, and his avidity in the pursuit of gain amounts to a species of heroism.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville

Dinah unconsciously opened her arms and stretched them out.
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot

[110] The king rarely shows himself in public more than twice a year, once during the month of October, and a second time on board his barge, when a procession is formed consisting of three or four hundred boats, often containing more than 1200 persons.
— from Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China (Siam), Cambodia, and Laos (Vol. 1 of 2) During the Years 1858, 1859, and 1860 by Henri Mouhot

"I merely wish to say, that as a slight token of my gratitude for the honor done me, and as a means of promoting friendly relations between adjoining nations, I have set up a post office in the hedge in the lower corner of the garden, a fine, spacious building with padlocks on the doors and every convenience for the mails, also the females, if I may be allowed the expression.
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

For the state and arts of the city, see the first book of Pausanias, and a small tract of Dicaearchus, in the second volume of Hudson's Geographers, who wrote about Olymp.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

At a stated time of the year, all the several people descended from the same stock, assemble by their deputies in a wood; consecrated by the idolatries of their forefathers, and by superstitious awe in times of old.
— from Tacitus on Germany by Cornelius Tacitus

So far this error went, That all Abdera sent To old Hippocrates To cure the sad disease.
— from Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Jean de La Fontaine

Later in the day they all saw this company of fairies again, but while to two of the haymakers the fairies appeared as sheep, to others they appeared as greyhounds, and to others as swine, and to others as naked infants.
— from British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes

The carriages and arrangements are superior to ours, and much cheaper as to fare, but very dear in the article of luggage.
— from The Greville Memoirs, Part 2 (of 3), Volume 2 (of 3) A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852 by Charles Greville

The girl was coming up from the river in the direction of old Ranelagh, and she was walking with so light and airy a step that one could have imagined it set to music—for her feet, which were very small and pretty, though, alas!
— from Mollie's Prince: A Novel by Rosa Nouchette Carey

No sooner had the allotment of land to the companies taken place than they were called upon to raise a further sum of £5,000, 131 and at the end of another twelve months a further sum of £7,500, making in all a sum total of £52,500 which they had subscribed towards the plantation.
— from London and the Kingdom - Volume 2 A History Derived Mainly from the Archives at Guildhall in the Custody of the Corporation of the City of London. by Reginald R. (Reginald Robinson) Sharpe

JOSEPH’S HOSPITAL, AS A SLIGHT TRIBUTE OF HONOR FOR HIS ENLIGHTENED PATRONAGE OF LEARNING AND HIS CHRISTIAN CHARITY TOWARDS HIS FELLOW-MEN, THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.
— from Moral Principles and Medical Practice: The Basis of Medical Jurisprudence by Charles Coppens

As these eggs lie side by side along the rock, just far enough apart for the parents to brood them, and as they all look amazingly alike, sometimes the owners themselves get mixed up as to the identity of their speckled property.
— from Neighbors Unknown by Roberts, Charles G. D., Sir

The opinion which imputes to the prince all the calamities of his times may be countenanced by the historian as a serious truth or a salutary prejudice.
— from History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 4 by Edward Gibbon

Peter took little notice of Henrica; he was talking with Van Hout about the letters from the Glippers asking a surrender, three of which had already been brought into the city, of the uncertain disposition of some members of the council and the execution of the captured spy.
— from The Burgomaster's Wife — Volume 04 by Georg Ebers

The cement-glands, the trunk, and the ducts, except the two, three, or even four last-formed ones, are all filled with an apparently solid thread of transparent, brownish cement, differing in no respect from the cement under the central parts of the basal membrane.
— from A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia (Volume 2 of 2) The Balanidæ, (or Sessile Cirripedes); the Verrucidæ, etc., etc. by Charles Darwin

One feller takes six spots of black, half an inch across, an' sticks them on one, scattering anyhow, an' sets it up a hundred yards off; another feller takes same number of spots an' the other Rabbit an' walks up till he can see to fix his Rabbit the same.
— from Two Little Savages Being the adventures of two boys who lived as Indians and what they learned by Ernest Thompson Seton