The common complaint, that luxury extends itself even to the lowest ranks of the people, and that the labouring poor will not now be contented with the same food, clothing, and lodging, which satisfied them in former times, may convince us that it is not the money price of labour only, but its real recompence, which has augmented.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

In aristocracies the hire of a farm is paid to the landlord, not only in rent, but in respect, regard, and duty; in democracies the whole is paid in cash.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

Cicero, in the second Philippic calls Antonius a catamite; but in Republican Rome, it is to Catullus that we must turn to find the most decisive evidence of their almost universal inclination to sodomy.
— from The Satyricon — Complete by Petronius Arbiter

‘I think there must be something in the place,’ said Mrs. Nickleby, who had been listening in silence; ‘for, soon after I was married, I went to Stratford with my poor dear Mr. Nickleby, in a post-chaise from Birmingham—was it a post-chaise though?’ said Mrs. Nickleby, considering; ‘yes, it must have been a post-chaise, because I recollect remarking at the time that the driver had a green shade over his left eye;—in a post-chaise from Birmingham, and after we had seen Shakespeare’s tomb and birthplace, we went back to the inn there, where we slept that night, and I recollect that all night long I dreamt of nothing but a black gentleman, at full length, in plaster-of-Paris, with a lay-down collar tied with two tassels, leaning against a post and thinking; and when I woke in the morning and described him to Mr. Nickleby, he said it was Shakespeare just as he had been when he was alive, which was very curious indeed.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

Out of the Dionysian root of the German spirit a power has arisen which has nothing in common with the primitive conditions of Socratic culture, and can neither be explained nor excused thereby, but is rather regarded by this culture as something terribly inexplicable and overwhelmingly hostile,mdash;namely, German music as we have to understand [Pg 151] it, especially in its vast solar orbit from Bach to Beethoven, from Beethoven to Wagner.
— from The Birth of Tragedy; or, Hellenism and Pessimism by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

“I bought it,” responded Randolph.
— from Daisy Miller: A Study by Henry James

One person will bear with dissent in matters of church government, but not of dogma; another can tolerate everybody, short of [Pg 15] a Papist or a Unitarian; another, every one who believes in revealed religion; a few extend their charity a little further, but stop at the belief in a God and in a future state.
— from On Liberty by John Stuart Mill

Atkinson's book is refreshing reading after the expurgation and sublimation of the same theme in Sir Edwin Arnold's Light of Asia.
— from The Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the Era of Méiji by William Elliot Griffis

Would you believe it, Rodion Romanovitch, they found a gingerbread cock in his pocket; he was dead drunk, but he did not forget the children!”
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

But the Council, by its recent resolution, no longer affords the Cantor the means to employ them.
— from Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work by Johann Nikolaus Forkel

Not above 14 hands 2 inches in height, with short legs, his neat head and neck, with sloping shoulders and short back, ranked him as fit to carry a bishop or a banker in Rotten Row.
— from Babes in the Bush by Rolf Boldrewood

“Perhaps my brother is right,” replied the Shawanoe.
— from Deerfoot on the Prairies by Edward Sylvester Ellis

It propagates itself freely by its root runners near the surface.
— from Hardy Perennials and Old Fashioned Flowers Describing the Most Desirable Plants, for Borders, Rockeries, and Shrubberies. by J. G. (John George) Wood

" "I don't believe it," replied Robert.
— from Jennie Gerhardt: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser

And all unjust war being supportable, if not by pillage of the enemy, only by loans from capitalists, these loans are repaid by subsequent taxation of the people, who appear to have no will in the matter, the capitalists' will being the primary root of the war; but its real root is the covetousness of the whole nation, rendering it incapable of faith, frankness, or justice, and bringing about, therefore, in due time, his own separate loss and punishment to each person.
— from Unto This Last, and Other Essays on Political Economy by John Ruskin

Note, further, that the words 'despise' and 'be weary' both imply rather rejection with loathing, and thus express unsubmissive impatience which gets no good from discipline.
— from Expositions of Holy Scripture Second Kings Chapters VIII to End and Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. Esther, Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes by Alexander Maclaren