Miss Murdstone shut her eyes, and disdainfully inclined her head; then, slowly opening her eyes, resumed: ‘David Copperfield, I shall not attempt to disguise the fact, that I formed an unfavourable opinion of you in your childhood.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

He enters: rapidly discussion Shifts, tacks about, until they prate The sorrows of a single state.
— from Eugene Oneguine [Onegin] A Romance of Russian Life in Verse by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin

So extinct have the traditions of the Sidhe -folk, who lived within the hill, become, that a high ecclesiastic recently driving by asked his driver was there an Irish name for the hill, and what was it, and his driver did not know.
— from The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. (Walter Yeeling) Evans-Wentz

—Therefore I answer thus: Pray, Sir, in all the reading which you have ever read, did you ever read such a book as Locke's Essay upon the Human Understanding?—Don't answer me rashly—because many, I know, quote the book, who have not read it—and many have read it who understand it not:—If either of these is your case, as I write to instruct, I will tell you in three words what the book is.—It is a history.—A history!
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

20, 21) contents himself with observing, that Constantine, when he entered Rome, did not imitate the cruel massacres of Cinna, of Marius, or of Sylla.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

Cynthia Delisle: D'avoir vécu des problèmes de harcèlement (envois répétitifs de courriels personnels non sollicités… c'était il y a plusieurs années, avant que les logiciels de messagerie ne soient équipés de fonctions de filtres!).
— from Entretiens / Interviews / Entrevistas by Marie Lebert

[256] ON READING THE LIFE OF HAROUN ER RESHID Down all the lanterned Bagdad of our youth He steals, with golden justice for the poor:
— from Kentucky Poems by Madison Julius Cawein

However, for the next week Sally heard enough revolutionary doctrine to revive her Sunday-night enthusiasm; the flame of "successful rebellion" had spread; the country began to stir and hum ominously; people assembled in groups, on corners, by church steps, around tavern-doors, with faces full of portent and expectance; ploughs stood idly in the fields; and the raw-boned horses, that should of right have dragged the reluctant share through heavy clay and abounding stones, now, bestridden by breathless couriers, scoured the country hither and yon, with news, messages, and orders from those who had taken the right to order out of the hands of sleek and positive officials.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 01, November, 1857 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various

It was a marvel that he ever reached Delhi.
— from Forty-one years in India: from subaltern to commander-in-chief by Roberts, Frederick Sleigh Roberts, Earl

The English dyewood cutters of Honduras did not observe the restrictions placed upon them by the treaty of Paris, and the British government neglected to satisfy Spain’s complaints in that regard; the French settlers of Louisiana refused to acknowledge their transfer to the Spanish crown, wherefore it was necessary to employ force against them, and it was believed that English agents had instigated them to resist; on the other hand England repeatedly demanded the payment of a ransom which the English conquerors of Manila had exacted from that city, but Spain refused to pay the claim.
— from A History of Spain founded on the Historia de España y de la civilización española of Rafael Altamira by Rafael Altamira

"I've had Evaleen Riley doing a little PC work on you, too," I confessed, and saw his face get dark with anger.
— from The Right Time by John Berryman

On each succeeding evening according to Tines Kendricks the call of the bird came clearly through the evening's stillness and each time he noticed that the cry came from a spot nearer the home until at last the bird seemed perched beneath the wide veranda and early on the morning following, a very highly excited redbird darted from tree to tree on the front lawn.
— from Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, Arkansas Narratives, Part 4 by United States. Work Projects Administration

For the sea was rising fast up the verge of ground-swell, and a deep hoarse echo rolling down the shoaling of the surges.
— from The Maid of Sker by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore

Rose groseille, honte et rougeur des péchés ridicules, rose groseille, on a trop chiffonné ta robe, fleur hypocrite, fleur du silence.
— from Instigations Together with An Essay on the Chinese Written Character by Ezra Pound

In his wounded vanity he experienced real despair.
— from Germinal by Émile Zola