It was still early, when the fatigues of the day brought on a drowsy longing for perfect rest, and she laid down her head, looking at the faint, dying flush in the west, where the one golden lamp was getting brighter and brighter.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

The young lad, his heir, was with the prince; also, the lad’s sister, a wee brown sprite, very pretty, very serious, very winning, delicately moulded, costumed like the daintiest butterfly, a dear little fairyland princess, gravely willing to be friendly with the strangers, but in the beginning preferring to hold her father’s hand until she could take stock of them and determine how far they were to be trusted.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

Je crois que vouloir appliquer des lois faites pour le papier à un autre médium est une erreur.
— from Entretiens / Interviews / Entrevistas by Marie Lebert

I have sometimes wondered whether—considering that we have all sorts of licensed people about us; people who are licensed to cram us upon steam-boats; to crowd us into omnibuses; to jolt us in ramshackle cabs; to supply us with bad brandy and other adulterated drinks; licentiates for practising physic; licentiates for carrying parcels; licentiates for taking money at their own doors for the diversions of singing and dancing; licentiates for killing game with gunpowder, which other people have been licensed to make—whether, I say, it would not be wise to license in England out-of-door as well as in-door amusements.
— from A Tramp's Wallet stored by an English goldsmith during his wanderings in Germany and France by William Duthie

At last, after wandering up and down, looking for pity in everybody’s face as they passed, and receiving none, he felt that he could not stand much longer, and emboldened by desperation, he approached a bench that was occupied by one person.
— from The Poacher; Or, Joseph Rushbrook by Frederick Marryat

There were Carians proudly nodding their helmet plumes, Cappadocian archers displaying large flowers painted on their bodies with the juice of herbs, and a few Lydians in women’s robes, dining in slippers and earrings.
— from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert

That evening, upon their return, the girls were eager to compare their trophies of the day, but the 152 maid came in with a day letter for Polly.
— from Polly's Business Venture by Lillian Elizabeth Roy

The actual dancing lasted for perhaps half an hour, after which the ash-devils sat down and began to "eat fire," jump into it, and perform other miraculous feats with it.
— from Ceremonies of the Pomo Indians by S. A. (Samuel Alfred) Barrett

Each of these bottles now contains a fairy-like resident in the shape of a dainty little fern, perfect in form and color, and of many varieties, the ribbon fern and hart’s-tongue predominating.
— from The Fern Bulletin, October 1903 A Quarterly Devoted to Ferns by Various

A compendium of Business and Domestic Law, for popular use.
— from Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels, Vol. I (of 2) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A dude lacks five points of being equal to no husband.
— from Santa Claus' Daughter: A Musical Christmas Burlesque in Two Acts by F. W. Hardcastle