He can begin a new work with (not a new, but) an eternal design; and what He has not made before, He does not now begin to make because He repents of His former repose.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

Be content, 'tis but a nine days' wonder, and as one sorrow drives out another, one passion another, one cloud another, one rumour is expelled by another; every day almost, come new news unto our ears, as how the sun was eclipsed, meteors seen in the air, monsters born, prodigies, how the Turks were overthrown in Persia, an earthquake in Helvetia, Calabria, Japan, or China, an inundation in Holland, a great plague in Constantinople, a fire at Prague, a dearth in Germany, such a man is made a lord, a bishop, another hanged, deposed, pressed to death, for some murder, treason, rape, theft, oppression, all which we do hear at first with a kind of admiration, detestation, consternation, but by and by they are buried in silence: thy father's dead, thy brother robbed, wife runs mad, neighbour hath killed himself; 'tis heavy, ghastly, fearful news at first, in every man's mouth, table talk; but after a while who speaks or thinks of it?
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

The result will be a confusion in which a few will appropriate to themselves the results of the blind and externally directed activities of others.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey

[141] areas, are surrounded by an exterior ditch, and by ramparts which are composed of mingled earth and stones, and are often of great extent in proportion to the area enclosed.
— from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. A to Amide Vol. 1 Part 1 by Various

Wherefore, you ladies being all exceeding discreet and modest, I, who savour somewhat of the scatterbrain, should be dearer to you, causing, as 458 I do, your worth to shine the brightlier for my default, than if with my greater merit I made this of yours wax dimmer; and consequently, I should have larger license to show you myself such as I am and should more patiently be suffered of you, in saying that which I shall say, than if I were wiser.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

Work must be as evenly divided as possible; one servant should not be allowed liberties not accorded to all.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post

At an afternoon tea the débutante wears an evening dress—a very simple evening dress, but an evening dress all the same.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post

The father was troubled, dark-faced and disconsolate, on Christmas night, because the passion was not there, because the day was become as every day, and hearts were not aflame.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

I have since been almost every day at the parliament house, and prefer the entertainment I there meet with to most other amusements.
— from Travels in England in 1782 by Karl Philipp Moritz

It is difficult to imagine that these Turks could not have aided us materially in driving the enemy from Sebastopol if strengthened by an English division and two French divisions, which could have been easily spared from the army before Sebastopol.
— from The British Expedition to the Crimea by Russell, William Howard, Sir

As they started away on the first leg of their journey, none was more joyous than the bull pup, who barked at the villagers, barked at every dog and cat within sight, and, after the village had been left behind, entertained himself by barking at imaginary cats and dogs, Emma Dean being his most interested listener.
— from Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders in the Great North Woods by Josephine Chase

Then Justice was seen coming after these, a beautiful maiden, who was beating with a stick and finally strangling a woman ugly and deformed, and in her company were four of the Gods Penates, two male and two female, these demonstrating—although in barbaric and extravagant dress, and although they had on the head a pediment which, with the base turned upwards, supported the heads of a young man and an old—by the gilded chain with a heart attached that they had [Pg 140] about the neck, and by their long, ample, and pompous vestments, that they were persons of great weight and of great and lofty counsel; which was done with much reason, seeing that they were reputed by the ancient writers to be the counsellors of Jove.
— from Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 10 (of 10) Bronzino to Vasari, & General Index. by Giorgio Vasari

On the other hand the stories of the Völsungar, Sigmundr and Sigurðr, are not mentioned by any early Danish authority.
— from The Heroic Age by H. Munro (Hector Munro) Chadwick

“I only wish,” cried Mrs. Delany, “it could be as easily done, as it is earnestly and universally desired.”
— from The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay — Volume 1 by Fanny Burney

The western slopes of these mountains are chiefly red sandstone, while their body and eastern declivities are granite, gneiss and similar rocks, and they are filled with valuable mineral products, marbles, slates and iron-ores.
— from America, Volume 4 (of 6) by Joel Cook

But it may be true—for Xenophon states it expressly, and with detail—that Cyrus, from the very time of his triumph, became an Eastern despot, a sultan or a shah, living apart from his people in mysterious splendour, in the vast fortified palace which he built for himself; and imitating and causing his nobles and satraps to imitate, in all but vice and effeminacy, the very Medes whom he had conquered.
— from Historical Lectures and Essays by Charles Kingsley

An aroma of botanic origin, but not attributable to any flowers, sometimes steals over the water, to announce that the boat, half hid among the bushes, is not untenanted, and that the occupant is a victim to the herb denounced once by an enthusiastic divine as “the gorging fiend.”
— from Rivers of Great Britain. The Thames, from Source to Sea. Descriptive, Historical, Pictorial by Various

And if I didn’t tell him, Jay-Jay would probably spoil me.... —6— The next had certainly been an exciting day, although nothing exciting happened prior to five o’clock, at which hour the General dismissed me for the day.
— from A Maid and a Million Men the candid confessions of Leona Canwick, censored indiscreetly by James G. Dunton by James G. (James Gerald) Dunton