To re-read some of his best stories, as I have just done, is to me like looking through a photographic album of my acquaintances, companions, and familiar reminiscences of some thirty years ago.
— from Studies in Early Victorian Literature by Frederic Harrison

It had been a mistake; they didn't care for roundels or sestinas, they yawned at the thought of roses white and red under the moon of Caronne, a moon less fair than my lady's eyes.
— from The Valor of Cappen Varra by Poul Anderson

But no, the idea is founded on error; and I must admit myself that, as far as my experience of water extends, I have never found river or source that yielded any so precious as that of the Oxus.
— from Travels in Central Asia Being the Account of a Journey from Teheran Across the Turkoman Desert on the Eastern Shore of the Caspian to Khiva, Bokhara, and Samarcand by Ármin Vámbéry

You would have humbled yourself before God for the first risings of selfish terror; you would have considered it a temptation, and have implored strength to resist it.
— from The Betrothed From the Italian of Alessandro Manzoni by Alessandro Manzoni