I vexed, having left my keys in my other pocket in my chamber, and my door is shut, so that I was forced to set my boy in at the window, which done I shifted myself, and so to my office till late, and then home to supper, my mind being troubled about Field’s business and my uncle’s, which the term coming on I must think to follow again.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Distin struck a match, and, with a very haughty look on his thin face, began to puff at a cigarette which he had taken from a little silver case, Vane watching him scornfully the while, but only to explode with mirth the next moment, for the young West Indian, though he came from where his father’s plantations produced acres of the pungent weed, was not to the manner born, and at the third draw inhaled so much acrid smoke that he choked, and stood coughing violently till Vane gave him a hearty slap on his back.
— from The Weathercock: Being the Adventures of a Boy with a Bias by George Manville Fenn

“And then the duke is so much amused,” said the duchess to her daughter, delighted at the unusual excitement of the handsome, but somewhat too serene, partner of her life.
— from Lothair by Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield

The dromedary is slightly made, and swifter than either of the others, but it is not so powerful as either; and being inferior as a beast of burden, is least cared for by the Turcomans.
— from Odd People: Being a Popular Description of Singular Races of Man by Mayne Reid

Trifling, therefore, and, perhaps, contemptible, as to the unthinking may seem the study of a butterfly, yet, when we consider the art and mechanism displayed in so minute a structure, the fluids circulating in vessels so small as almost to escape the sight, the beauty of the wings and covering, and the manner in which each part is adapted for its peculiar functions, we cannot but be struck with wonder and admiration, and must feel convinced that the maker of all has bestowed equal skill in every class of animated beings; and also allow with Paley, that "the production of beauty was as much in the Creator's mind in painting a butterfly, as in giving symmetry to the human form.
— from The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 14, No. 403, December 5, 1829 by Various

If I when my wife is sleeping and the baby and Kathleen are sleeping and the sun is a flame-white disc in silken mists above shining trees,— if I in my north room danse naked, grotesquely before my mirror waving my shirt round my head and singing softly to myself: “I am lonely, lonely.
— from A Book of Poems, Al Que Quiere! by William Carlos Williams

“Why not do it?” said Mr. Ackerman, seizing the psychological moment.
— from The Boss of Wind River by A. M. (Arthur Murray) Chisholm

He won't dread it so much a second time."
— from The Young Adventurer; or, Tom's Trip Across the Plains by Alger, Horatio, Jr.