All the reasonable persons of the piece, the father and his brother, the lover and the daughter, nay, even the ungrammatical maid, are all proud of what they are not, have not, and know not, and even what they do not seek to be, to have, or to know.
— from Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature by August Wilhelm von Schlegel

She was not young; she was not beautiful;—never had been I should judge,—she had not even the usual marks about her of an ultra strong personality; but that her will was law, had always been, and would continue to be law so long as she lived, was patent to any eye at the first glance.
— from The Golden Slipper, and Other Problems for Violet Strange by Anna Katharine Green

In ferocity of disposition, however, in carnivorous inclination, and in strength and power to carry out his mischievous propensities, no bear, not even the ursus maritimus , appears to be a match for this monster of the Rocky Mountains.
— from Bruin: The Grand Bear Hunt by Mayne Reid

It did seem hard, just as I had got used to a motor-car, to have this new experience thrust upon me, all unprepared.
— from My Friend the Chauffeur by A. M. (Alice Muriel) Williamson

"Good Lord, what will happen next?" exclaimed the unhappy man, appalled at the collapse of his plan of conciliation.
— from The Love Chase by Felix Grendon