‘If here ain’t the Harrisburg mail at last, and dreadful bright and smart to look at too,’ cried an elderly gentleman in some excitement, ‘darn my mother!’
— from American Notes by Charles Dickens

If one could observe the strangely painful, equally coarse and refined comedy of European Christianity with the derisive and impartial eye of an Epicurean god, I should think one would never cease marvelling and laughing; does it not actually seem that some single will has ruled over Europe for eighteen centuries in order to make a SUBLIME ABORTION of man?
— from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

His amorous eloquence grew in strength as he irrigated his throat with champagne, Greek wine, and eastern liqueurs.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

And every god inspiring social love!
— from The Odyssey by Homer

Gracious heaven!——but I forget I am a little of her temper myself; for whenever it so falls out, which it sometimes does about the equinoxes, that an earthly goddess is so much this, and that, and t’other, that I cannot eat my breakfast for her——and that she careth not three halfpence whether I eat my breakfast or no—— 90 ——Curse on her!
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

—Gracious heaven!—but I forget I am a little of her temper myself; for whenever it so falls out, which it sometimes does about the equinoxes, that an earthly goddess is so much this, and that, and t'other, that I cannot eat my breakfast for her—and that she careth not three halfpence whether I eat my breakfast or no— —Curse on her!
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

Now this reminds me how it is that an English gentleman is so far in front of foreign noblemen and princes.
— from Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore

These are no fleeting or transitory sentiments, since they date from the hour of our birth as a nation and are ever growing in strength.
— from With the Battle Fleet Cruise of the Sixteen Battleships of the United States Atlantic Fleet from Hampton Roads to the Golden Gate, December, 1907-May, 1908 by Franklin Matthews

"His completis convocato apud Ardamachiam totius Hiberniæ clero, et super advenarum in insulam adventu tractato diutius et deliberato, tandem communis omnium in hoc sententia resedit: propter peccata scilicet populi sui, eoque præcipue quod Anglos olim, tam a mercatoribus, quam prædonibus atque piratis, emere passim, et in servitutem redigere consueverant, divinæ censura vindictæ hoc eis incommodum accidisse, ut et ipsi quoque ab eadem gente in servitutem vice reciproca jam redigantur.
— from Protestantism and Catholicity compared in their effects on the civilization of Europe by Jaime Luciano Balmes

Of the latter, one was of great age, having been in the service of the Dutch and English Governments in succession for upwards of a century.
— from The Wild Elephant and the Method of Capturing and Taming it in Ceylon by Tennent, James Emerson, Sir

Edward attacked the camp of the rebels; and being transported by the ardour of battle, leaped over the trench with a few followers, and encountered Gourdon in single combat.
— from The History of England, Volume I From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688 by David Hume

Strange crackling rustlings sounded in my ears, as at each growl I seized the opportunity, and in the semi-obscurity of the reverberations placed myself better.
— from Two Dianas in Somaliland: The Record of a Shooting Trip by Agnes Herbert

In this ill-judged attack, every grenadier is said to have been killed or wounded; while the Americans did not lose a single man.
— from The Life of George Washington: A Linked Index to the Project Gutenberg Editions by John Marshall

That thing, heaven and eternal glory, is so great, and I that would have it, so small, so sorry a creature, that the thoughts of obtaining it confounds me.
— from Works of John Bunyan — Complete by John Bunyan

The entire rock is only about a mile in circumference, yet room is found on the very small portion of level ground for a tennis-court, and even golf is sometimes played.
— from The Cornwall Coast by Arthur L. (Arthur Leslie) Salmon