The desert consisted of faded fruit and iced froth, a good emblem of our landlady’s character; the table-beer was sour, the water foul, and the wine vapid; but there was a parade of plate and china, and a powdered lacquey stood behind every chair, except those of the master and mistress of the house, who were served by two valets dressed like gentlemen.
— from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. (Tobias) Smollett

I spent a week with the girl, getting my meals from the inn, and enjoying a diversity of pleasures which I shall remember all my days; my young wanton had a large circle of female friends, all pretty and all kind.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

But Adeline was occupied by fame This day; and watching, witching, condescending To the consumers of fish, fowl, and game, And dignity with courtesy so blending, As all must blend whose part it is to aim (Especially as the sixth year is ending)
— from Don Juan by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

Dates are hard to remember because they consist of figures; figures are monotonously unstriking in appearance, and they don't take hold, they form no pictures, and so they give the eye no chance to help.
— from What Is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain

It seemed to her as if this country of flat fields, and hedgerows, and dotted houses, and villages, and market-towns—all so much alike to her indifferent eyes—must have no end, and she must go on wandering among them for ever, waiting tired at toll-gates for some cart to come, and then finding the cart went only a little way—a very little way—to the miller's a mile off perhaps; and she hated going into the public houses, where she must go to get food and ask questions, because there were always men lounging there, who stared at her and joked her rudely.
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot

From the mouth of the Rhine to that of the Danube, the ancient camps, towns, and citidels, were diligently reestablished, and, in the most exposed places, new ones were skilfully constructed: the strictest vigilance was introduced among the garrisons of the frontier, and every expedient was practised that could render the long chain of fortifications firm and impenetrable.
— 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

breva , f. , name applied to the first yearly crop of fruit from a fig-tree.
— from Heath's Modern Language Series: The Spanish American Reader by Ernesto Nelson

The Breast, so capable of fondness for a Parent, what will it feel for a Lover? Nay, perhaps, what feels it for one even now?
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis

We have met here, a company of friends, for a farewell dinner to a comrade and you carry on an altercation," said Trudolyubov, rudely addressing himself to me alone.
— from Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The relics of the Federal navy then consisted of five frigates and seven sloops and brigs in commission, and three frigates under repair,—a feeble force, indeed, with which to meet the Mistress of the Seas, but which demonstrated by its achievements what fifty or a hundred sail might have accomplished.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 44, June, 1861 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various

High-caste Hindus no longer make animal sacrifices, and their offerings to Siva, Vishnu and Devi consist of food, flowers and blades of corn.
— from The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 4 by R. V. (Robert Vane) Russell

The contact of a human being, and one for whom he possessed as much affection as he was capable of feeling for any, revived his spirits.
— from The Prime Minister by William Henry Giles Kingston

The weather was very fine, and the ship rolled but little; even then, the strain upon the mast was terrific, and right glad was I when at last the immense cube of fat, flesh, and bone was eased inboard and gently lowered on deck.
— from Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, April 1899 Volume LIV, No. 6, April 1899 by Various

Folch, Spanish Governor. Frontiersmen, tend to retrograde; importance of; hatred of Indians; some of them profit by Indian wars; characteristics of; fondness for a lonely life; engage in river trade; but fundamentally farmers; build few and small towns; capacity for self-help; traits of those who became permanent settlers; their political organization; join together for common objects; hardness of life; existence in a log cabin; Americans the pioneers; failure of old-world immigrants on frontier; pioneers suspicious of merchants; sometimes repudiate debts; viciousness of their military system; their individualism in religious matters; they strain against Spanish boundaries; hated and feared by Spaniards; their advantages over Spaniards.
— from The Winning of the West, Volume 4 Louisiana and the Northwest, 1791-1807 by Theodore Roosevelt

Addison's quietness with strangers was against a rapid widening of his circle of familiar friends, and must have made the great-hearted friendship of Steele as much to him as his could be to Steele.
— from The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 With Translations and Index for the Series by Steele, Richard, Sir

Stand back, ma chérie !’” Offutt, fifty feet away, caught himself straining his ears to hear those trumpets too.
— from Local Color by Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb

These increases, together with the expansion of the plans requiring a canal of maximum depth, instead of the pilot cut of fifteen feet, as originally planned; the insistence of the Levee Board that levees in the back areas must be raised to elevation 30; development of unforeseen and unforeseeable quicksand conditions in the various excavations; requirements of railroads for bridges of greater capacity and strength than needed; building of a power line to the Foundation Company's plant—not a Dock Board job, but one that the conditions required it should finance then; and other expenses, besides delaying the work, made another bond issue necessary to finish the job.
— from The Industrial Canal and Inner Harbor of New Orleans History, Description and Economic Aspects of Giant Facility Created to Encourage Industrial Expansion and Develop Commerce by Thomas Ewing Dabney

He and Percy began swapping stories of salmon and trout, and he finally got out his case of fishing flies, and gallantly presented Betsy and me with a "silver doctor" and a "Jack Scott" out of which to make hatpins.
— from Dear Enemy by Jean Webster