It’s now high time for me to acknowledge the great Satisfaction I have received in your relating so many witty and pleasant passages, that have occurr’d in your lives time hitherto; nor can I (without injuring your ingenuity) but commend your generous freedom in discoursing every Remarque, and not omiting any observable, though you knew it could not chuse but cut the very throat of your dying Reputations; and that I may not seem to fall short of that frankness, and gallantry, I will not so much as seem tainted of the late unpardonable sin of these times; Men making
— from The English Rogue: Continued in the Life of Meriton Latroon, and Other Extravagants: The Fourth Part by Francis Kirkman

The fairies in the Highlands of Scotland generally have their habitations in rugged precipices and rocky caverns, found in districts especially remarkable for wildness of scenery.
— from Musical Myths and Facts, Volume 1 (of 2) by Carl Engel

“James had been presented with a copy of the translation of Gessner's 'Death of Abel'—everyone was going mad about the book that year—more copies were sold of it than of any translation since Pope's 'Homer,' but I fancy James found it dull enough reading.
— from Fanny's First Novel by Frank Frankfort Moore

So it is easy for me to do what I wish, and above all to leave undone that which I wish not, for I do easily rule them all, as good Sir Edwin and dear Jane will testify.
— from When Knighthood Was in Flower or, the Love Story of Charles Brandon and Mary Tudor the King's Sister, and Happening in the Reign of His August Majesty King Henry the Eighth by Charles Major

But terrible at first in dire excess Rude license many a timid patriot harms.
— from Iberia Won; A poem descriptive of the Peninsular War With impressions from recent visits to the battle-grounds, and copious historical and illustrative notes by T. M. (Terence McMahon) Hughes

To a person who has never studied the subject, it seems a matter easy to settle; yet, in fact, it demands extensive research even to understand.
— from The Religion of Geology and Its Connected Sciences by Edward Hitchcock

Barn No. 2. 80 feet in diameter; Engine room in foreground.
— from Economy of the Round Dairy Barn by Wilber J. (Wilber John) Fraser

In the midst of wild forests I discovered extraordinary ruins, delicate and chiseled like jewels, fine as lace and enormous as mountains, those fabulous, divine monuments which are so
— from The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 1 Boule de Suif and Other Stories by Guy de Maupassant

“The five-franc fortune is dear enough,” replied the Southerner, making powerful efforts not to yield to the influence of the surroundings in which he found himself.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac