I ask my reader’s leave to draw a veil over some incidents of this truly scandalous orgy, in which the ugly woman taught me some things I did not know before.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Capt Lewis & my Self walked up, to the top which forms a Cone and is about 70 feet higher than the high lands around it, the Bass is about 300 foot in decending this Cupola, discovered a Village of Small animals that burrow in the grown (those animals are Called by the french Pitite Chien) Killed one & Cought one a live by poreing a great quantity of water in his hole we attempted to dig to the beds of one of thos animals, after diging 6 feet, found by running a pole down that we were not half way to his Lodges, we found 2 frogs in the hole, and killed a Dark rattle Snake near with a Ground rat in him, (those rats are numerous) the Village of those animals Covs.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

Both DEUCE and DICKENS are vulgar old synonymes for the devil; and ZOUNDS is an abbreviation of GOD’S WOUNDS ,—a very ancient catholic oath.
— from A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James. by John Camden Hotten

After discussing a variety of subjects they began to talk about heroes, a topic that tends to be more fertile than edifying.
— from Aesop's Fables; a new translation by Aesop

To give a definite idea of the conversations which take place between the visitors and the Amphlettans, I shall give a sample noted down, during a visit of some Trobrianders to Nu’agasi, the smaller village of Gumasila.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

Instead of progressing, as we fondly expected, during a voyage of so many days, we had retreated.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

a. unsuspecting Diammod, a. unconditional Diammynedd, a. impatient Diamrafael, a. uncontentious Diamrosgo, a. not unwieldy Diamryfus, a. not excessive Diamryson, a. void of strife Diamwedd, a. incongruous Diamwel, a. uncircumspect Diamwes, a. void of enjoyment Diamwys, n. unequivocal Dianadl, a. breathless Dianaf, a. without defect Dianair, a. reproachless Dianerch, a. ungreeted Dianfodd, a. not unwilling Dianfon, a. without mission Dianfwyn, a. not unkind Dianffawd, without misfortune Dianhap, a. without mischance Dianhardd, a. not unlovely Dianhwyl, a. undisordered Dianial, a. not overgrown Dianian, a. unnatural Diannedd, a. without dwelling Diannel, a. aimless Diannod, a. instantaneous Diannog, a. unexited Diannwyd, a. unchilled Dianrheg, a. giftless Dianrhydedd, without honour Diantur, a. without enterprise Dianudon, a. not perjured Dianwadal, a. unwavering Diaraf, a. not dilatory or slow Diaraul, a. inclement Diarbed, a. unsparing Diarchenad, a. unclothed Diarcholl, a. without wound Diarchwaeth, a. tasteless Diarddel, v. to expel: a. claimless Diareb, a. proverb Diarebol, a. proverbial Diarebu, v. to use adages Diarebydd, n. proverbialist Diarf, a. unarmed Diarfaeth, a. void of purpose Diarfer, a. unusual Diarfod, a. inopportune Diarffoidd, a. out of the way Diargae, a. without obstacle Diargel, a. undisguised Diargraff, a. unprinted Diarloes, a. exhaustless Diarludd, a. unobstructed
— from A Pocket Dictionary: Welsh-English by William Richards

Henri Murger gave of so many picturesque light-love escapades, that had so much of pathos mingled with their unmorality, began to find in Dick a vein of sympathy.
— from Cape of Storms: A Novel by Percival Pollard

Over an extent of country is distributed a variety of soils, one adapted for one kind of produce, another for another, and the aggregate may amount to so much.
— from Confessions of an Etonian by I. E. M.

If there had been the frailty of passion, it would have been excusable; but it is evident she is a practised, callous jilt, a regular lodging-house decoy, played off by her mother upon the lodgers, one after another, applying them to her different purposes, laughing at them in turns, and herself the probable dupe and victim of some favourite gallant in the end.
— from Liber Amoris, Or, The New Pygmalion by William Hazlitt

"I die a victim of Spain's agony," he wrote in a personal letter shortly before the end, and his last article for publication, finished on the day of his death, a gloomy discussion of the outlook for the Peace Conference, contains bitter references to the national disasters and 235 to the ravages of the "criminal troop of pirates in the Philippines."
— from Spanish Highways and Byways by Katharine Lee Bates

To deny an officer discretion was as scathing an expression of dissatisfaction as Nelson could utter; and as he sowed, so he reaped, in a devotion and vigor of service few have elicited equally.
— from The Life of Nelson, Volume 2 The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

I believe that bearing reins may also be useful, and indeed a security (though as a general rule I hate them) when, as is the fashion now, a pair of high-bred powerful horses are put to draw a Victoria or some other very light carriage, for doubtless a bit does act more powerfully when accompanied by a bearing rein than without one.
— from An Old Coachman's Chatter, with Some Practical Remarks on Driving by Edward Corbett

Liberty was the subject of the dreams and visions of slave preachers and sibyls; it was the object of their prayers.
— from The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom: A comprehensive history by Wilbur Henry Siebert

Over his sensations on leaving Oxford we prefer to draw a veil, only saying that his last outlook—as an undergraduate—over her immemorial towers was as hazy as the average Cabinet Minister’s outlook over the events of the day and the desires of the community.
— from The Prophet of Berkeley Square by Robert Hichens