To say the truth, though he was somewhat of a politician, and had been twice a candidate in the country interest at an election, he was a man of no great observation.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

Aren't you getting rather tired of the waltz and me?" "Oh no; go on!"
— from Indian Summer by William Dean Howells

Mr. Bryan was a young man of notable gifts of speech and boundless self-assertion.
— from Marse Henry, Complete An Autobiography by Henry Watterson

A daughter she could keep with her while a son must of necessity go out into the world, and the world, she thought with a pang, was so full of peril, of temptation.
— from A Modern Madonna by Caroline Abbot Stanley

—Yolks of four eggs, one cup of brown sugar, half a cup of cooking molasses, half a cup of butter, half a cup of sour milk, one teaspoonful of ground cloves, one teaspoonful of cinnamon, one teaspoonful of mace, one nutmeg grated, one teaspoonful of soda, the soda to be dissolved in a little milk and added after part of the flour is stirred in, one and a half cups of sifted flour.
— from The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887) Cooking, Toilet and Household Recipes, Menus, Dinner-Giving, Table Etiquette, Care of the Sick, Health Suggestions, Facts Worth Knowing, Etc., Etc. The Whole Comprising a Comprehensive Cyclopedia of Information for the Home by Hugo Ziemann

The truth seems to be, that he and the duke, who lived in troubled times, and had to exert all their strength to hinder Ferrara from becoming a prey to the court of Rome, were clever, harsh men, of no grace or elevation of character, and with no taste but for war; and if it had not been for their connexion with Ariosto, nobody would have heard of them, except while perusing the annals of the time.
— from Stories from the Italian Poets: with Lives of the Writers, Volume 2 by Leigh Hunt

It is difficult to describe the feelings by which we are affected when we witness the ruins of an edifice destined by its founder to be a monument of national glory, or even of personal honor; but when we contemplate with unprejudiced eyes the remains of a building once sacred to a large portion of our fellow creatures, and raised by them in honour of the great Father of the universe, wantonly destroyed by a being, in whose hands chance had placed more power than his vitiated mind knew how to apply to virtuous purposes—we cannot avoid cursing him, in the bitterness of our anguish.
— from Historical and Descriptive Narrative of Twenty Years' Residence in South America (Vol 1 of 3) Containing travels in Arauco, Chile, Peru, and Colombia; with an account of the revolution, its rise, progress, and results by Stevenson, William Bennet, active 1803-1825

There is an exquisitely voluptuous painting by Gascar, engraved by Masson, of Nell Gwynne on a bed of roses whilst the two boys as winged amorini support flowing curtains and draperies.
— from The Works of Aphra Behn, Volume II by Aphra Behn

I gave an exact account of everything that had happened since I entered the office that morning, omitting nothing, glossing over nothing, shirking nothing.
— from My Friend Smith: A Story of School and City Life by Talbot Baines Reed