I am sensible I ought to entreat your pardon for addressing to you a work so wholly devoid of literary merit; but, as the production of an unlettered African, who is actuated by the hope of becoming an instrument towards the relief of his suffering countrymen, I trust that such a man , pleading in such a cause , will be acquitted of boldness and presumption.
— from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African Written By Himself by Olaudah Equiano

I will set about my preparations in such a way that no one can suspect anything.”
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

The other, smaller and more perfect in shape perhaps, spread out gracefully; the slender and supple bodies of jackals whose paws rested upon the edge as if the animals sought to drink, formed the handles.
— from The Romance of a Mummy and Egypt The Works of Theophile Gautier, Volume 5 by Théophile Gautier

Specifically, the therapeutic action of suggestion, both in its more usual forms and as hypnotic suggestion, has shown to what unexpected extent such action may proceed in susceptible individuals.
— from Fact and Fable in Psychology by Joseph Jastrow

The possibilities of using springs as motive power in semi-automatic cameras have not apparently been seriously considered.
— from Airplane Photography by Herbert Eugene Ives

“Her carriage has been obliged to stop at my poor inn,” said the host, “because one of her horses became so lame that she is unable to proceed.”
— from The Sicilian Bandit From the Volume "Captain Paul" by Alexandre Dumas

Being one day in this frame of dubiety, lying in the bed, and my son sitting at my pillow, I said to him, "Get the [313] Book and open, and read," which he accordingly did; and the first verse that he cast his eye upon was the twenty-fourth of the seventh chapter of Isaiah, "With arrows and with bows shall men come."
— from Ringan Gilhaize, or, The Covenanters by John Galt

It is an interesting fact that to this day St. Paul's visit to Thessalonica is remembered, and in one of the local mosques, which was formerly the Church of Sancta Sophia, a marble pulpit is shown, said to have been the very one occupied by the Apostle, while in the surrounding plains trees and groves are pointed out as marking spots where he tarried for a time.
— from The Expositor's Bible: The Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 2 by George Thomas Stokes

"—Steam as Motive Power in Ships the Leading Event in the Art.—Lord Dundas and Steam Canal Boats.—Iron Ships in Place of Wood, 1829-30.—John Laird of Birkenhead.—Sir
— from Inventions in the Century by William Henry Doolittle

The greatest beauty-show on the continent was the Saturday afternoon matinee parade in San Francisco.
— from The City That Was: A Requiem of Old San Francisco by Will Irwin