For that which takes place according to nature is pleasant, but that which is contrary to nature is painful.
— from Timaeus by Plato

“I passed the day and the night in prayer, for I hoped that God would pardon me my suicide.
— from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

The place is sacred still, and the name is preserved in the Hindí.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

“Against May, Whitsonday, or other time, all the yung men and maides, olde men and wives, run gadding over night to the woods, groves, hils, and mountains, where they spend all the night in plesant pastimes; and in the morning they return, bringing with them birch and branches of trees, to deck their assemblies withall.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

The provocation of intense emotion, and therefore the provocation of that state in which the body is above the normal in power, thus becomes [Pg xi] the index to truth; and it is a very remarkable thing that two prominent English thinkers should, at the very end of their careers, have practically admitted this, despite the fact that all their philosophical productions had been based upon a completely different belief.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Ex responsis, il paraît jam sole clarius Quod lepidum iste caput bachelierus Non passavit suam vitam ludendo au trictrac, Nec in prenando du tabac; Sed explicit pourquoi furfur macrum et parvum lac, Cum phlebotomia et purgatione humorum, Appellantur a medisantibus idolae medicorum, Nec non pontus asinorum?
— from The Imaginary Invalid by Molière

And, though nothing is perfect, Lucy felt for the moment that her mother and Windy Corner and the Weald in the declining sun were perfect.
— from A Room with a View by E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster

It is a wound that bleeds when any hand but that of love touches it, and even then must bleed again, though not in pain.
— from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde

And the victorious Raghu's son Addressed the sage in words like these, Rich in his long austerities: “The night is past: the morn is clear; Told is the tale so good to hear: Now o'er that river let us go, Three-pathed, the best of all that flow.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

The old man introduced 288 himself under the name of Sogbarong Tsering Tundup—Sogbarong is his home in the west, and this name is placed before his own much as Anders Persson i Stor-gården.
— from Trans-Himalaya: Discoveries and Adventurers in Tibet. Vol. 2 (of 2) by Sven Anders Hedin

It is almost superfluous to mention Mr. Berenson’s two well-known volumes, The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance , and the North Italian Painters of the Renaissance (Putnam).
— from The Venetian School of Painting by Evelyn March Phillipps

By profane history is meant the account of all transactions not included [Pg 166] in the sacred volumes.
— from A Week of Instruction and Amusement, or, Mrs. Harley's birthday present to her daughter : interspersed with short stories, outlines of sacred and prophane history, geography &c. by Unknown

"I see," nodded Rodgers, "Miss Rayner will have the dead lady's money, and the nephew is poor."
— from The Mandarin's Fan by Fergus Hume

Condemnation of the twentieth-century woman's dress was voiced at the Ninth International Purity Congress by Rev. Albion Smith, Madison, Wis., who spoke on "Spirit Rule vs. Animal Rule for Men and Women." 197.
— from News Writing The Gathering , Handling and Writing of News Stories by M. Lyle (Matthew Lyle) Spencer

The palace itself reminded them a little of the Duc d'Aumale's at Twickenham: not in point of architecture, but in its beautiful and interesting contents; in its choice collections of pictures, and books, and works of art, and in the general tone which pervaded the whole.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 05, April 1867 to September 1867 by Various

Now, if there exists at this point an organ capable of performing the required action, it is quickly stimulated to act; and if the organ does not exist and the need is pressing and sustained, bit by bit the organ is produced and developed in proportion to the continuity and the energy of its use" (p. 155).
— from Form and Function: A Contribution to the History of Animal Morphology by E. S. (Edward Stuart) Russell

"As it was impossible to carry out the original orders, the trucks were sent by crossroads to A——, the nearest important point, and I went on in a little, light car to [72] N——, squeezing my way down the long, hurrying line of troops and transport.
— from With the Doughboy in France: A Few Chapters of an American Effort by Edward Hungerford