There you found the explanation of his great haste, why he was so anxious to bring a measure of practical reality to the Jewish people even if it necessitated a detour from the land which was becoming more and more a part of his hopes and desires.
— from The Jewish State by Theodor Herzl

All I mean is that you must understand—I cannot feel safe now—I must be at home as much as possible to see that Tiny is safe, and that everything is going on well.
— from A True Friend: A Novel by Adeline Sergeant

She flashed a smile at me, and, protesting an engagement with her dentist, jauntily walked on.
— from The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham

Eating your grub, and drinking your drink, and making bad jokes about you, and singing vulgar songs, about—well, about prisons and magistrates, and policemen; horrid personal songs, with no humour in them.
— from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

"Good," said Xenophon, "and in spite of it all, at the present moment, here I am myself, and Phryniscus, one of my colleagues, and Polycrates yonder, a captain; and outside, to represent the other generals (all except Neon the Laconian), the trustiest men they could find to send.
— from Anabasis by Xenophon

And therefore when any one of these pantomimic gentlemen, who are so clever that they can imitate anything, comes to us, and makes a proposal to exhibit himself and his poetry, we will fall down and worship him as a sweet and holy and wonderful being; but we must also inform him that in our State such as he are not permitted to exist; the law will not allow them.
— from The Republic by Plato

To protect a man in his legal rights [,to assist him with counsel,] and to serve as many as possible with that sort of knowledge tends greatly to increase one's influence and popularity.
— from De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero

The same ambition can destroy or save, And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

To grim Tisiphone, And pale Megaera, he Preferr'd, as murderess, Alecto, pitiless.
— from Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Jean de La Fontaine

I do not want any more at present.
— from Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope

Victor said, he could not decry, as many a philosopher had done, conjectures reaching out beyond the earth; for after all we must guess about what was beyond this world, whether we asserted or denied.
— from Hesperus; or, Forty-Five Dog-Post-Days: A Biography. Vol. II. by Jean Paul

Our plan was to assist them as much as possible, and when we get things into the proper train for sending them on, to get the assistance of the husband and wife, who have no children, but are uncle and aunt to the woman with five, in taking with them one of the younger children, leaving fewer for the mother.
— from The Underground Railroad A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, &c., Narrating the Hardships, Hair-Breadth Escapes and Death Struggles of the Slaves in Their Efforts for Freedom, As Related by Themselves and Others, or Witnessed by the Author. by William Still

Arsène Lupin was silent for a moment and [Pg 116] then, with his eyes fixed on the Englishman, said very simply: "You're a great man, sir."
— from The Blonde Lady Being a Record of the Duel of Wits between Arsène Lupin and the English Detective by Maurice Leblanc

John Bullard was an English drummer-boy, who had been through several battles, stoutly drumming away in spite of bullets and cannon-balls; cheering many a camp-fire with his voice, for he sang like a blackbird, and was always merry, always plucky, and so great a favorite in his regiment, that all mourned for "little Johnny" when his right arm was shot off at Gettysburg.
— from Spinning-Wheel Stories by Louisa May Alcott

" So saying, Sir Hopeful slowly emerged from his 'loop-hole of retreat,' and making a profound obeisance to his guardian spirit, and another to me, a shade less lowly, he took himself off, with his linen over his arm, and a grand parting flourish at the door, with his hat upon his walking-stick, for the especial benefit of his little brother, which elicited a shout of unmingled admiration from the juvenile spectators that need not have been despised by Herr Alexander himself.
— from The American Gentleman's Guide to Politeness and Fashion or, Familiar Letters to his Nephews by Margaret C. (Margaret Cockburn) Conkling

Then he had become a monk and a bishop and finally, and much against his will, (for he wanted to be a missionary and preach Christianity to the heathen of England,) he had been dragged to the Church of Saint Peter to be made Pope.
— from The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem Van Loon

It was sartin we couldn't do nothing till night, but we both strained our cords as much as possible to get 'em to stretch a bit and give us a better chance of slipping out of 'em.
— from True to the Old Flag: A Tale of the American War of Independence by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

It is only the story of the beginning of a life, and of the beginning of a work, which in many and many a place, besides gloomy Draymoor, started in the humblest and smallest way.
— from The Oriel Window by Mrs. Molesworth

It is, at least, less disgraceful to have forbidden a literature to a people who had none, than to have banned and barred the use of a most ancient language,—to have destroyed the annals of a most ancient people.
— from An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 by Mary Frances Cusack