Never was a more undisguised schemer, a franker, looser intriguer.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

The general commanding announces to the troops composing the Military Division of the Mississippi that he has received from the President of the United States, and from Lieutenant-General Grant, letters conveying their high sense and appreciation of the campaign just closed, resulting in the capture of Savannah and the defeat of Hood's army in Tennessee.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

To Lund, o'er Scania's peaceful field, My shoulder bore my useless shield; A fairer land, a better road, As friend or foe, I never trod.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

This done, they were riding away well pleased, when up sprang a fierce lion, and roared out, ‘Whoever has stolen my roses shall be eaten up alive!’
— from Grimms' Fairy Tales by Wilhelm Grimm

But,' says he, 'to expect mere words to back up successfully a face like yours in a lady's good graces is like expecting a man to make a square meal on the ringing of a dinner-bell.'
— from Roads of Destiny by O. Henry

What I believe the Americans would imply by the above assertion is that you may travel through all the United States and find less difficulty in understanding or being understood, than in some of the counties of England, such as Cornwall, Devonshire, Lancashire and Suffolk.
— from Diary in America, Series One by Frederick Marryat

“Huh! like as not we’ll be given a chance to see what a musty old dungeon under some Austrian fortress looks like!”
— from Motor Boat Boys Down the Danube; or, Four Chums Abroad by Louis Arundel

When Peter the Great introduced Latin and Teutonic influences, and German, Italian, English, above all, French elements poured into the country, an “official Russia” grew up, speaking a foreign language and having no contact with the nation.
— from The New Spirit Third Edition by Havelock Ellis

This 211 cannot be reversed by any of the foregoing modes of stimulation, but a long-continued undulatory stimulus, as from lamp-light, will reverse it.
— from The Birth-Time of the World and Other Scientific Essays by John Joly

how dare you utter such a fiendish lie!"
— from They Looked and Loved; Or, Won by Faith by Miller, Alex. McVeigh, Mrs.

Excuse my interference in so delicate a matter by reason of the sincere interest I take in your daughter, and the faithful friendship with which I remain Your unalterably sincerely attached F. Liszt Weymar, November 4, 1860
— from Letters of Franz Liszt -- Volume 1 from Paris to Rome: Years of Travel as a Virtuoso by Franz Liszt

This period is very unpropitious for some girls, who suddenly shoot up, become ugly, sallow and frail, like plants before their due season.
— from The Fortune of the Rougons by Émile Zola

The cost of manufacturing a twelve months’ supply of paper for the United States, aside from labor and rags, is computed at $4,000,000.
— from The Impending Crisis of the South How to Meet It by Hinton Rowan Helper