If it were a habit of valour and not a sally, it would render a man equally resolute in all accidents; the same alone as in company; the same in lists as in a battle: for, let them say what they will, there is not one valour for the pavement and another for the field; he would bear a sickness in his bed as bravely as a wound in the field, and no more fear death in his own house than at an assault.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

The work is rather too light and bright and sparkling: it wants shade; it wants to be stretched out here and there with a long chapter of sense, if it could be had; if not, of solemn specious nonsense, about something unconnected with the story,—an essay on writing, a critique on Walter Scott, or the history of Buonaparte, or something that would form a contrast, and bring the reader with increased delight to the playfulness and epigrammatism of the general style....
— from The Letters of Jane Austen Selected from the compilation of her great nephew, Edward, Lord Bradbourne by Jane Austen

Where monitoring must be done by a single individual or a very small staff, it is desirable to find a basic news broadcast and to take it down verbatim where possible.
— from Psychological Warfare by Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger

[“That is, of Admiration. She (Iris, the rainbow) is beautiful, and for that reason, because she has a face to be admired, she is said to have been the daughter of Thamus.”
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

When Halfdan heard that his brother Harald had been beaten by Erik in three battles, and slain in the fourth, he was afraid of losing his empire; he had to quit the land of the Swedes and go back to his own country.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

I can do nothing, can begin nothing, can alter nothing; I hold myself in, I wait, inventing amusements for myself—the English family, writing, reading—but it’s all nothing but a sham, it’s all the same as morphine.
— from Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Although confined in a cage, I was content with my lot, but if I must become a slave, I could not wish for a nobler mistress than one who has shown so much constancy, and from this moment I swear to serve you faithfully.
— from The Arabian Nights Entertainments by Andrew Lang

Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen?
— from The Story of My Life With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy by Helen Keller

“for this poor Mrs. Beaumont,” added she, “is so eager to have a discharge in full of her debt to me, that out of mere compassion, I am induced to listen to her.
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney

On the one side, on his light and graceful Arab, champing its gilded bits and shaking its velvet housings, sat the gay and gallant Frenchman—his long, dark locks uncovered, and his fair proportions displayed to the best advantage in his rich garb of peace.
— from The Knights of England, France, and Scotland by Henry William Herbert

Mr. Brann always spoke in the most kindly terms of Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins, and when he purchased his home in this city, he offered to share it with them, but having grown old and being comfortably situated they did not desire to change.
— from The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 12 by William Cowper Brann

Mr. Strahan complained of his being at Streatham 'in a great measure absorbed from the society of his old friends' ( ante , iii. 225).
— from Life of Johnson, Volume 3 1776-1780 by James Boswell

gydig (i) possessed ( by a spirit ), insane , OEG 5009.
— from A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary For the Use of Students by J. R. Clark (John R. Clark) Hall

But we must take a brace and see it through.
— from Rilla of Ingleside by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

The form given to the liquid metal by the craftsman's skill is still manifest, its delicate transparency accentuated here and there by cutting the surface into small facets, or engraving {108} upon it graceful designs; but as skill increased so taste degraded.
— from Arts and Crafts Essays by Members of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society by Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society

While the remainder of the company lay on the ground, wrapped in their blankets, and sunk in deep sleep, I amused myself with contemplating the grotesque ghost-like formation of the white sand-stone of the Stone Walls, amidst the howling of the wolves, and the melancholy note of the owl ( Strix Virginianus ).
— from Maximilian, Prince of Wied's, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832-1834, part 2 by Wied, Maximilian, Prinz von

124 “It’s nice of you to say that I’ve given you a chance to direct,” Randy put in, “but unless Peggy and Amy can produce a theater, I’m afraid that the chance will be a strictly imaginary one.
— from Peggy Finds the Theatre by Virginia Hughes

" A swarm in May is indeed a treasure; it is, like an April baby, sure to thrive, and will very likely itself send out a swarm a month or two later; but a swarm in July is not to be despised; it will store no clover or linden honey for the "grand seignior and the ladies of his seraglio," but plenty of the rank and wholesome poor man's nectar, the sun-tanned product of the plebeian buckwheat.
— from Birds and Bees, Sharp Eyes, and Other Papers by John Burroughs