He saw that in decorating a room, which is to be, not a room for show, but a room to live in, we should never aim at any archæological reconstruction of the past, nor burden ourselves with any fanciful necessity for historical accuracy.
— from Intentions by Oscar Wilde

For an enemy has keener perception than a friend, for, as Plato 524 says, "the lover is blind as respects the loved one," and hatred is both curious and talkative.
— from Plutarch's Morals by Plutarch

The middle classes bore, as in Roman times, the burden of taxation, and were consequently bankrupt and ruined: the land was still in the hands of the few, and the large estates were indifferently cultivated by crowds of miserable slaves, whose dreary lives were brightened by no hope of improvement or dream of release before death.
— from The Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole

The open balcony admitted the fresh, pure breeze and revealed the lake, whose waters murmured sweetly around the base of the edifice, as if rendering homage.
— from The Reign of Greed by José Rizal

with pleasures too refined to please; With too much spirit to be e’er at ease; With too much quickness ever to be taught; With too much thinking to have common thought: You purchase pain with all that joy can give, And die of nothing but a rage to live.
— from An Essay on Man; Moral Essays and Satires by Alexander Pope

But as regards the letter of advice, I am charmed to find that it has reached you; that will spare me the troublesome and disagreeable task of coming to you for money myself.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

I determined, therefore, to abandon my campaign into the interior with Columbus as a base, and returned to La Grange and Grand Junction destroying the road to my front and repairing the road to Memphis, making the Mississippi river the line over which to draw supplies.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant

The gas has the curious power of combining with the blood and refusing to let go, thus keeping out the oxygen necessary for life.
— from The Treasure-Train by Arthur B. (Arthur Benjamin) Reeve

"'Soon after this the time of the holidays came about, and the son took his journey to his parents, to spend the holidays with them as it was his wont to do; for it has been already remarked that love and peace reigned in that house.
— from Pine Needles by Susan Warner

Although my mother was bold and right to let me go as a bachelor to Dresden, I could not have done it myself.
— from Margot Asquith, an Autobiography - Two Volumes in One by Margot Asquith

They were usually {23} uncovered beneath a rather thick layer of earth.
— from The Century of Columbus by James J. (James Joseph) Walsh

"Your affectionate friend, Sam Selwyn ." John felt much better after reading these letters.
— from Luck and Pluck; or, John Oakley's Inheritance by Alger, Horatio, Jr.

It is only the critic and the philosopher who can penetrate into all states of being, and realize their life from within.
— from Amiel's Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel by Henri Frédéric Amiel

She recovered herself, however, and said, with a touch of sarcasm, tempered by a rather trembling lip: "Your rage won't prevent their gossiping, Mr. Jacob, I thought, perhaps, your friendship might have done something to stop it--to--to influence Julie," she added, uncertainly.
— from Lady Rose's Daughter by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

Macaulay was born at Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, in 1800.
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long