I was growing rapidly; I enjoyed nine hours of deep sleep, unbroken by any dreams, save that I always fancied myself sitting at a well-spread table, and gratifying my cruel appetite, but every morning I could realize in full the vanity and the unpleasant disappointment of flattering dreams!
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Great refinement is evident, not only in the mouldings but in the details throughout.
— from Design and Tradition A short account of the principles and historic development of architecture and the applied arts by Amor Fenn

Well, we slid along behind a free-gaited horse, in an easy wagon, over good roads, in early New England summer, when every breath of air had a pretty story to tell.
— from Plain Mary Smith: A Romance of Red Saunders by Henry Wallace Phillips

The Forest remains where and as it was, save that invasions on the waste, and encroachments, have from time to time greatly restricted its extent; not so the city, for that has advanced, and meets the old liberty at half-way.
— from Nooks and Corners of English Life, Past and Present by John Timbs

"I had a good reason: it exists no longer.
— from A Struggle for Rome, v. 1 by Felix Dahn

Some general definition of that intellectual emotion which we call good reading is especially needed in America.
— from Definitions: Essays in Contemporary Criticism [First Series] by Henry Seidel Canby

Long before we had begun the study of Latin at the village school, my brother and I had learned the Lord's Prayer in Latin out of an old copy of the Vulgate, and gravely repeated it every night in an execrable pronunciation because it seemed to us more religious than "plain English."
— from Twenty Years at Hull House; with Autobiographical Notes by Jane Addams