for what is done can never be undone; but ‘tis to the end they may offend no more, and that others may avoid the example of their offence: we do not correct the man we hang; we correct others by him.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Rather, redouble your outward austerity, and thunder out menaces against the errors of others, the better to conceal your own.
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis

“Any one might think that you were afraid to owe me a trifle,” exclaimed this latter, with a searching glance that seemed to read the young man’s inmost thoughts; there was a satirical and cynical smile on Vautrin’s face such as Eugene had seen scores of times already; every time he saw it, it exasperated him almost beyond endurance.
— from Father Goriot by Honoré de Balzac

“Destroy that deed and the other muniments, and the Earl de Mowbray will never be Baron Valence,” said Mr Hatton.
— from Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield

A few hours after the occurrence mentioned above, the elder pickerel, at one end of a trolling line, climbed into our boat; Bige, who had the other end of the line, assisting him aboard.
— from Fish Stories by Henry Abbott

"Marvels are manifested equally to the ignorant and to the learned; and although vain-minded pretenders to philosophy affirm, that the warring of the elements is no more than nature working out its own purification, yet do we know, from all ancient authorities, that other manifestations are therein exhibited.
— from The Wept of Wish-Ton-Wish by James Fenimore Cooper

[274] A young man named Ammi White was chopping wood for Rev. William Emerson at the "Old Manse" at the east end of the bridge, while the firing was going on he hid under cover of the wood-pile, when it was over he went to the bridge, saw one British soldier dead, another badly wounded, [472] grasping his axe he struck the wounded soldier on the head crushing in his skull, then taking the soldier's gun, he went off home.
— from The Loyalists of Massachusetts and the Other Side of the American Revolution by James Henry Stark

Bishop Lightfoot, as I have mentioned, considers that Jesus was an orthodox Jew, whose mission was to perpetuate every jot and tittle of Mosaism; and that "emancipation" from the "swathing-bands" of the law came from the Apostles.
— from The Influence of Buddhism on Primitive Christianity by Arthur Lillie

It was about two o'clock in the afternoon that our march against the enemy began by heads of columns, whilst the eighteen-pounder battery followed slowly along the road.
— from History of the War Between Mexico and the United States, with a Preliminary View of its Origin, Volume 1 by Brantz Mayer

The sheep was productive of great amusement to our messmates, at the expense of the poor caterer.
— from Twenty-Five Years in the Rifle Brigade by William Surtees