This was very wonderful if it were true; and Lady Russell was in a state of very agreeable curiosity and perplexity about Mr Elliot, already recanting the sentiment she had so lately expressed to Mary, of his being "a man whom she had no wish to see."
— from Persuasion by Jane Austen

The illustrious and holy orator occupied the pulpit of the Holy Ghost and preached a most eloquent and profound sermon, which edified and left marveling all the faithful who had waited so anxiously to see spring from his fecund lips the restoring fountain of eternal life.
— from The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal

The camera, and more particularly the instantaneous camera, has habituated people to expect in a portrait a momentary expression, and of these momentary expressions the faint smile, as we all know, is an easy first in the matter of popularity.
— from The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed

“A few more experiences such as I have had today would make me as much of a pessimist as Miss Eliza Andrews,” Anne told her reflection in the east gable mirror at bedtime.
— from Anne of Avonlea by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

that speech sounds as pessimistic as Miss Eliza Andrews and I’m ashamed of making it.
— from Anne of Avonlea by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

A philosophic age may excuse a single vice, which was redeemed by a crowd of virtues; and in the review of his faults, and the more intemperate passions of Lascaris, the judgment of their contemporaries was softened by gratitude to the second founders of the empire.
— 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

Another pause, and more eying and sidling around each other.
— from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Why it is that the substitution of this circuitous mode of proceeding for a process apparently much easier and more natural, is held, and justly, to be the greatest triumph of the investigation of nature, we are not, in this stage of our inquiry, prepared to examine.
— from A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive (Vol. 1 of 2) by John Stuart Mill

He escorted Catharine de' Medici on her bridal journey from Florence, talked philosophy at Medicean banquets, was closeted with popes and kings, was the boon companion of reigning dukes, a courtier to princes and people, a magnificent entertainer, a fugitive, exile, prisoner, sceptic, scholar, and suicide,—typifying in his life the luxury and lawlessness, the culture and the crime, the splendor and the degradation, the manners and morals, of his country and his age,—and hence a most instructive biographical study, which Mr. Trollope has treated with equal fulness, insight, and authenticity.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 120, October, 1867 A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics by Various

The latter is now called St. Nicolas, and presents a most extraordinary and old world appearance: higher than the first, its form is so irregular, that it would be difficult to decide what shape it could be called: round on one side, square on another, with little round, square, and octagon turrets rising out of it, the whole mass has the strangest effect imaginable.
— from Béarn and the Pyrenees A Legendary Tour to the Country of Henri Quatre by Louisa Stuart Costello

He cannot be a politician, a musician, etc., and at the same time an expert scientist.
— from The Doctrine and Practice of Yoga Including the Practices and Exercises of Concentration, both Objective and Subjective, and Active and Passive Mentation, an Elucidation of Maya, Guru Worship, and the Worship of the Terrible, also the Mystery of Will-Force by Mukerji, A. P., swámi

All but two were defamed for improper relations with women; all accepted presents; all made extra and illegal charges; all neglected their duties and most of them quarrelled with each other.
— from A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 1 by Henry Charles Lea

The transformation will be completed as soon as practicable, the work being in active progress, as maintenance expenses are reduced appreciably thereby, because kerosene, a cheaper oil, is used in lieu of paraffin, while, furthermore, less oil is burned under the incandescent system.
— from Lightships and Lighthouses by Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

He told him in glowing words the whole story of his sufferings; and with a plain and manly eloquence appealed to him to make his chapel words good and come between the bloodhounds and their prey.
— from It Is Never Too Late to Mend by Charles Reade

The boy noticed in an instant that he had turned red, whereupon he turned red himself and pupil and master exchanged a longish glance in which there was a consciousness of many more things than are usually touched upon, even tacitly, in such a relation.
— from The Pupil by Henry James