[5077] P. Jovius commends his Italian countrywomen, to have an excellent faculty in this kind, above all other nations, and amongst them the Florentine ladies: some prefer Roman and Venetian courtesans, they have such pleasing tongues, and such [5078] elegancy of speech, that they are able to overcome a saint, Pro facie multis vox sua lena fuit.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

A ll were attentive to the godlike man, When from his lofty couch he thus began: “Great queen, what you command me to relate Renews the sad remembrance of our fate: An empire from its old foundations rent, And ev’ry woe the Trojans underwent; A peopled city made a desert place; All that I saw, and part of which I was: Not ev’n the hardest of our foes could hear, Nor stern Ulysses tell without a tear.
— from The Aeneid by Virgil

The lovely vision’s ire awoke, His voice was loud and proud his mien: ‘Believe not, friend!’ ’twas thus he spoke, ‘That thou my likeness yet hast seen: The pencil that my portrait made Was guided by an envious foe; In Paradise I man betrayed, And he, from hatred, paints me so.’
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

These factors, he alleged, and the revolting spectacles offered by our streets, hideous publicity posters, religious ministers of all denominations, mutilated soldiers and sailors, exposed scorbutic cardrivers, the suspended carcases of dead animals, paranoic bachelors and unfructified duennas—these, he said, were accountable for any and every fallingoff in the calibre of the race.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

"Dancing, which is the most frequent mode of exercise with ladies in great cities, practiced, as it is, in [280] heated rooms, and exhausting from its violence, often does more harm than good, from producing languor and over-fatigue.
— from The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness A Complete Hand Book for the Use of the Lady in Polite Society by Florence Hartley

Edgar told me afterwards that at that moment he thought to see me fall to the ground in an epileptic fit; I trembled and shuddered so terribly.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

He said it in a very agony, and even followed it with an errant motion of his hands as if he could have torn himself.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

No pre-existing "idea" had anything to do with it: but utility, which teaches us that things can be reckoned with and managed, only when we view them roughly as equal.... Finality in reason is an effect, not a cause: Life degenerates with every other form of reason, although constant attempts are being made to attain to those other forms of reason;—for Life would then become too obscure, too unequal.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

In the whole of La Fontaine’s works I only know five or six fables conspicuous for child-like simplicity; I will take the first of these as an example, for it is one whose moral is most suitable for all ages, one which children get hold of with the least difficulty, which they have most pleasure in learning, one which for this very reason the author has placed at the beginning of his book.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Sam told them nothing would be needed except soap and water, but Fenwick and Ellerbee felt it impossible to go off without some other emergency equipment.
— from The Great Gray Plague by Raymond F. Jones

"Don't leave me in anger," entreats Fabian, in some agitation, detaining her by a gesture full of entreaty.
— from Portia; Or, By Passions Rocked by Duchess

But in June the American Expeditionary Forces informed us that this bomb would not be of value to the Air Service abroad because of its small explosive charge, and the contract was cut down to 40,000 bombs, which number the Army could use in training its aviators.
— from America's Munitions 1917-1918 by Benedict Crowell

I wish to quote from Page 4 of the translation, Paragraphs 2 to 4: “It is the task of the GBW”—that is the Plenipotentiary General for Economics—“to put all economic forces into the service of the Reich defense and to safeguard economically the life of the German nation.
— from Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremburg, 14 November 1945-1 October 1946, Volume 5 by Various

D—me but it made me think I was on the side of a hill on the advanced-posts, stuck behind a tree, or the corner of a rock, watching the enemy in the moonshine of a fine summer’s night, just as I was immediately before the first battle Sir Arthur ever fought in Portugal.
— from The Military Sketch-Book, Vol. 2 of 2 Reminiscences of seventeen years in the service abroad and at home by William Maginn

TOTAL CASUALTIES For nearly a week in the beginning of April no casualty lists were issued by the War Department, owing to a cablegram from the Secretary of War prescribing the following rules for handling publicity of matters pertaining to troops and operations: First—All matters pertaining to events, persons, policies, or operations abroad will only be officially given out from the headquarters, American Expeditionary Force in France.
— from Current History: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times, May 1918 Vol. VIII, Part I, No. 2 by Various

When Lord Petersham's Collection of Snuff was sold, it took one of the partners in the firm of Fribourg and Treyer, of the Haymarket, and two assistants three days to weigh it—and the same firm, when they bought George IV.'s collection, at his death, set a room apart, entirely for its sale.
— from Social England under the Regency, Vol. 2 (of 2) by John Ashton

The extraordinary passion for dogs, together with the hatred of humankind, visible in Bernabò and others of the Visconti, had become an extravagant ferocity in this degenerate member of the race.
— from The Story of Milan by Ella Noyes

He could hardly recognize that band of awkward and enthusiastic followers in his present highly disciplined and meritorious staff.
— from The Divine Fire by May Sinclair