M. de Chauvelin, whom I had the honour to know at Versailles, at M. de Choiseul’s, was an extremely pleasant man.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

17. CHAPTER X That Holy Communion is not lightly to be omitted The Voice of the Beloved Thou must frequently betake thee to the Fountain of grace and divine mercy, to the Fountain of goodness and all purity; to the end that thou mayest obtain the healing of thy passions and vices, and mayest be made stronger and more watchful against all temptations and wiles of the devil.
— from The Imitation of Christ by à Kempis Thomas

It was one rainy day last week; most of the company were killing time in the billiard-room, but Milicent and I were with little Arthur and Helen in the library, and between our books, our children, and each other, we expected to make out a very agreeable morning.
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

As, within the purposes of the Kosmos, and vivifying all meteorology, and all the congeries of the mineral, vegetable and animal worlds—all the physical growth and development of man, and all the history of the race in politics, religions, wars, &c., there is a moral purpose, a visible or invisible intention, certainly underlying all—its results and proof needing to be patiently waited for—needing intuition, faith, idiosyncrasy, to its realization, which many, and especially the intellectual, do not have—so in the product, or congeries of the product, of the greatest literatus.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

Shabbiness, which in modern life is merely the tendency of the lower orders towards tone, is not without its artistic value, and modern colours are often much improved by being a little faded.
— from Intentions by Oscar Wilde

Only the world and love seemed to her as a void and make-believe from beginning to end.
— from The Hungry Stones, and Other Stories by Rabindranath Tagore

As he persisted in his claim, I was advised to go to law, but Garnier declared the agreement null and void, accusing me in an indirect manner of having appropriated the money which I had said was stolen.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

But she came, it seems, mighty rich in rings and fine clothes, and like a lady, and says she is matched mighty well, at which I am very glad, but wonder at her good fortune and the folly of her husband, and vexed at myself for not paying her the respect of seeing her, but I will come out of her debt another time.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Aut vincere aut mori —Either to conquer or die.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

“Well, really,” said the Water-rat, in a very angry manner, “I think you should have told me that before you began.
— from The Happy Prince, and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde

“Who you goin’ to fool, sweety?” asked a voice, and Mr. Dorgan looked around to see Syrilla, the Fat Lady, standing in the car door.
— from Philo Gubb, Correspondence-School Detective by Ellis Parker Butler

It was in every nerve and vein, and my heart shook merely, instead of beating.
— from A Sister to Evangeline Being the Story of Yvonne de Lamourie, and how she went into exile with the villagers of Grand Pré by Roberts, Charles G. D., Sir

The installation of the Hapsburgs at Venice and Milan, of Victor Emmanuel I at Genoa, of Frederick William of
— from William Pitt and the Great War by J. Holland (John Holland) Rose

At last Hemstead concluded that he could safely say "good morning"; and he did so in a very awkward manner over his shoulder.
— from From Jest to Earnest by Edward Payson Roe

Perhaps some one else will take pity on my forlorn condition, and volunteer as my champion."
— from Love After Marriage; and Other Stories of the Heart by Caroline Lee Hentz

Manon died in the desert, it is true, but in the arms of the man who loved her with the whole energy of his soul; who, when she was dead, dug a grave for her, and watered it with his tears, and buried his heart in it; while Marguerite, a sinner like Manon, and perhaps converted like her, had died in a sumptuous bed (it seemed, after what I had seen, the bed of her past), but in that desert of the heart, a more barren, a vaster, a more pitiless desert than that in which Manon had found her last resting-place.
— from Camille (La Dame aux Camilias) by Alexandre Dumas

He was no longer an echo but a voice, a man's voice, shouting above a tumult.
— from Outlines of English and American Literature An Introduction to the Chief Writers of England and America, to the Books They Wrote, and to the Times in Which They Lived by William J. (William Joseph) Long

The next day, Oediddee agreeably surprised them with a visit on board: he was greatly rejoiced to see them, and enquired after all his friends in a very affectionate manner: He took great pleasure in recounting his route in the Resolution, had treasured up in his memory the names of the several places he had been at in her, nor had he forgot his English compliments.
— from The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay With an Account of the Establishment of the Colonies of Port Jackson and Norfolk Island (1789) by Arthur Phillip

To be a great and virtuous man appeared the highest honour that can befall a sensitive being; to be base and vicious, as many on record have been, appeared the lowest degradation, a condition more abject than that of the blind mole or harmless worm.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The lonely mind may not uprafter stars, And vain, adventurous man who of himself Createth Heaven must see it fall.
— from Lords and Lovers, and Other Dramas by Olive Tilford Dargan