Since, indeed, if there is yet life, death is not yet; for this state is before death, not in death: and if life has already ceased, death is not present; for this state is after death, not in death.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

“No really, my dear, this dress is not pretty,” said Lise, looking sideways at Princess Mary from a little distance.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

So, when this loose behaviour I throw off, And pay the debt I never promised, By how much better than my word I am, By so much shall I falsify men’s hopes; And, like bright metal on a sullen ground, My reformation, glittering o’er my fault, Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

And had it not been our practice, from the days of our forefathers, to rest on the seventh day, this bank could never have been perfected, by reason of the opposition the Jews would have made; for though our law gives us leave then to defend ourselves against those that begin to fight with us and assault us, yet does it not permit us to meddle with our enemies while they do any thing else.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

Meaning, as extension, would be wholly in the air or unreal, did it not point to some object or group of objects; while objects would be as isolated and independent intellectually as they seem to be spatially, were they not bound into groups or classes on the basis of characteristic meanings which they constantly suggest and exemplify.
— from How We Think by John Dewey

The antiquated form do , doublet of donde , is now preserved only in phrases in which it is followed by quiera , and in a few locutions like a dó , 'whither.'
— from Doña Perfecta by Benito Pérez Galdós

The very abstractness of the names bespeaks a modern origin; for the personification of times and seasons like the Carnival and Summer, or of an abstract notion like death, is not primitive.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

But not only does it not pay to do these things, but the decent man does not wish to do them.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

“I would offer myself as your surety and friendly adviser,” said Monte Cristo, “did I not possess a moral distrust of my best friends, and a sort of inclination to lead others to doubt them too; therefore, in departing from this rule, I should (as the actors say) be playing a part quite out of my line, and should, therefore, run the risk of being hissed, which would be an act of folly.”
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

Did I not prefer her communion to that of any other, I would instantly leave her, for I am not so abandoned as to play the hypocrite that I detest, and have often detested it [155, 156] to my great loss.
— from The Every-day Book and Table Book. v. 2 (of 3) or Everlasting Calendar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, in past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Month, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the Almanac by William Hone

Do I not put myself entirely in your power?
— from Great Porter Square: A Mystery. v. 3 by B. L. (Benjamin Leopold) Farjeon

But the debt is never paid back .
— from Records of Later Life by Fanny Kemble

"It was a genu-ine Amati, Mawruss," Abe repeated for the third time, "and for a genu-ine Amati, Mawruss, a hundred and twenty-five dollars is no price at all."
— from Abe and Mawruss: Being Further Adventures of Potash and Perlmutter by Montague Glass

In what did I not page
— from Lavengro The Scholar - The Gypsy - The Priest, Vol. 1 (of 2) by George Borrow

Does it not prove her love of truth; her strength of character, and her greatness of soul?
— from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. III, No. XVII, October 1851 by Various

“Thank God, the dead is neither priest nor Spaniard!
— from An Eagle Flight: A Filipino Novel Adapted from Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal

I have now been long enough in France to understand that seeing an article in an exhibition like the one I am describing, is no proof that it enters at all into the comforts and civilization of the nation, although it may be an object as homely as a harrow or a spade.
— from Recollections of Europe by James Fenimore Cooper

The letter bears date November 11th, 1777: "It is not a great while since I wrote my dear friend on my disappointment in not paying her a visit.
— from The Women of The American Revolution, Vol. 1 by E. F. (Elizabeth Fries) Ellet

But the inspection of these changes give us no right to believe that there has been any discontinuity in natural processes.
— from Lectures and Essays by Thomas Henry Huxley