'But all men cannot receive this saying': in the lower life of ambition they may be taken off their guard and stoop to folly unawares, and then, although they do not attain to the highest bliss, yet if they have once conquered they may be happy enough.
— from Phaedrus by Plato

Toward the center of the city was a large plaza, and upon this and in the buildings immediately surrounding it were camped some nine or ten hundred creatures of the same breed as my captors, for such I now considered them despite the suave manner in which I had been trapped.
— from A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

"What is not thought by all men cannot be true," said Collective 0-0009.
— from Anthem by Ayn Rand

at?——’tis nothing but a man, &c. The stranger rode on communing in this manner with his mule and Julia—till he arrived at his inn, where, as soon as he arrived, he alighted——saw his mule, as he had promised it, taken good care of——took off his cloak-bag, with his crimson-sattin breeches, &c. in it—called for an omelet to his supper, went 155 to his bed about twelve o’clock, and in five minutes fell fast asleep.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

But a man can paint like Velasquez and yet be as dull as possible.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflections, it came into my thoughts one day that all this might be a mere chimera of my own, and that this foot might be the print of my own foot, when I came on shore from my boat: this cheered me up a little, too, and I began to persuade myself it was all a delusion; that it was nothing else but my own foot; and why might I not come that way from the boat, as well as I was going that way to the boat?
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Go but apart, Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will, And they shall hear and judge ’twixt you and me.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

Then alighted the esquires of honour from their coursers, and the knights in good order mounted upon them; and after their helmets were set on their heads, and being ready in all points, proclamation made by the heralds, the jousts began, and many commendable courses were run, to the great pleasure of the beholders.
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

Not one: for the just, the pure, the true, and an who might most worthily obey it, shrink sadly back, as most conscious of error and imperfection.
— from Mosses from an Old Manse, and Other Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Why," said he, "that is Roger Bontemps, a merry careless fellow, who up to the age of fifty kept the parish school; but changing his first trade he has become a wine-grower.
— from Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period by P. L. Jacob

Here, by a moderate computation, we concluded ourselves 700 miles from the sea-coast where we began.
— from The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton by Daniel Defoe

The tomb of Rachel is now surrounded by a Moslem cemetery, and as we happened to be there on Thursday we found ourselves in the midst of a great gathering of women, who had come there, according to their weekly custom, to weep and to wail. .
— from In the Levant Twenty Fifth Impression by Charles Dudley Warner

On motion, "That Mr. Blount and Mr. Cocke, who claim to be Senators of the United States, be received as spectators, and that chairs be provided for that purpose until the final decision of the Senate shall be given on the bill proposing to admit the South-western Territory into the Union:" A motion was made to refer the consideration thereof to a committee; and it passed in the negative.
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 1 (of 16) by United States. Congress

Why this should have taken place is not by any means certain, for Nebo was a deity adored far and wide, as may be gathered from the fact that there was a mountain bearing his name in Moab, upon which Moses—also an "announcer," adds Jastrow—died.
— from The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria by Theophilus G. (Theophilus Goldridge) Pinches

"Dere's been a midnight cry dere, and poor Miss Sue (dat's my young missis), she's done gone home."
— from Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp by Harriet Beecher Stowe

My father would be more than ever incensed against him and me; and, moreover, although that is but a minor consideration, there would be no hope whatever of your ever recovering the rank and estate to which you are entitled.
— from Bonnie Prince Charlie : a Tale of Fontenoy and Culloden by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

For several months he suffered from an asthmatic attack, which finally became a malignant catarrh, causing him much anguish.
— from Martin Van Buren by Edward Morse Shepard

The story beneath a series of smaller headlines began: "At the very moment—9:05 o'clock this morning—when Celia Hunt, maid in the Tracey Miles home in the Brentwood district of Hamilton, was screaming the news of her discovery of the dead body of Dexter Sprague, New York motion picture director, in what is known as the 'trophy room,' Miss Polly Beale and Mr. Clive Hammond were applying for a marriage license in the Municipal Building.
— from Murder at Bridge by Anne Austin

Lord Mount Edgcumbe, who had a prejudice for bravura singing, said: "No doubt the deaf would have been charmed with Grassini, but the blind must have been delighted with Mrs. Billington": a malicious comment on the Italian singer, which this distinguished amateur, when in a less cynical mood, revoked by cordial admiration of Grassini's remarkable gifts both as vocalist and actress.
— from Great Singers, First Series Faustina Bordoni To Henrietta Sontag by George T. (George Titus) Ferris