At the very beginning of my fevers and sicknesses that cast me down, whilst still entire, and but little, disordered in health, I reconcile myself to Almighty God by the last Christian, offices, and find myself by so doing less oppressed and more easy, and have got, methinks, so much the better of my disease.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

For their nobles, to keep them at a distance it is not amiss; but to depress them may make a king more absolute, but less safe, and less able to perform anything that he desires.
— from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon

Take up the spear and shield and arise to help us; confound and put to shame those who have devised evil against us, may they be before the faces of Thy faithful warriors as dust before the wind, and may Thy mighty Angel confound them and put them to flight; may they be ensnared when they know it not, and may the plots they have laid in secret be turned against them; let them fall before Thy servants’ feet and be laid low by our hosts!
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

On, then, my lord Don Quixote, beautiful and brave, let your worship and highness set out to-day rather than to-morrow; and if anything be needed for the execution of your purpose, here am I ready in person and purse to supply the want; and were it requisite to attend your magnificence as squire, I should esteem it the happiest good fortune."
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

If Brutus will vouchsafe that Antony May safely come to him, and be resolv’d How Caesar hath deserv’d to lie in death, Mark Antony shall not love Caesar dead So well as Brutus living; but will follow The fortunes and affairs of noble Brutus Thorough the hazards of this untrod state, With all true faith.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

Subject to such attacks three hundred years, The donjon yields, and ruin now appears, E'en as by leprosy the wild boars die,
— from Poems by Victor Hugo

It will be a bad lookout for the Count if the edge of that “Kukri” ever touches his throat, driven by that stern, ice-cold hand!
— from Dracula by Bram Stoker

He was tall; but you only perceived it when he was standing by the side of others, for the great breadth of his shoulders and chest made him appear but little above the middle height.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

Because of the drop in the price of rubber, not a “balata” boat had gone down the river in weeks; and though a messenger was dispatched even to the rival camps, word came back that none would have a boat leaving before September or October!
— from Working North from Patagonia Being the Narrative of a Journey, Earned on the Way, Through Southern and Eastern South America by Harry Alverson Franck

He seized hold of a tree and shook it, and shook it again and again, so that there was scarcely a blossom left upon it; he stood there covered all over with the petals.
— from Villa Eden: The Country-House on the Rhine by Berthold Auerbach

After a battle lasting for hours he regained his supremacy.
— from Voices; Birth-Marks; The Man and the Elephant by Mathew Joseph Holt

Crevices amongst bare lime-stone rocks, North."
— from An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language in which the words are explained in their different senses, authorized by the names of the writers by whom they are used, or the titles of the works in which they occur, and deduced from their originals by John Jamieson

That these guides of the race should be permanently relieved of all bodily labour as well as of all vulgar need and discomfort; nay, that in proportion to their much greater achievements they should necessarily own and enjoy more than the common man, is natural and reasonable.
— from The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; On Human Nature by Arthur Schopenhauer

Society has divested itself of many crudities and affectations perhaps, but it has grown as artificial and self-conscious as its rouged and befeathered leaders.
— from The Women of the French Salons by Amelia Gere Mason

"It is too soon to despair, dearie," said Aunt Zélie, as Bess looked ready to cry.
— from The Story of the Big Front Door by Mary Finley Leonard

In oozy pastures where a brook lazily finds its way through the farm is the ideal pleasure ground of this "bird of society."
— from Bird Neighbors An Introductory Acquaintance with One Hundred and Fifty Birds Commonly Found in the Gardens, Meadows, and Woods About Our Homes by Neltje Blanchan

I’m not a bit like you—and—and—you only say these things to be kind.”
— from A Sweet Girl Graduate by L. T. Meade

She drove the artist to his room, set Madeleine to help Yvonne undress, "and rub her till she's as red as a boiled lobster," prepared two steaming glasses of mulled wine, scolded each unwilling patient until the decoction was taken, and wanted to massage Ingersoll; an attention that he avoided only by declaring positively that he would not indulge in a hot bath at all unless she cleared out.
— from Flower of the Gorse by Louis Tracy