IMG I suppose you mistrust I speak all this by way of jeer and irony; and well I may, since among divines themselves there are some so ingenious as to despise these captious and frivolous impertinences: they look upon it as a kind of profane sacrilege, and a little less than blasphemous impiety, to determine of such niceties in religion, as ought rather to be the subject of an humble and uncontradicting faith, than of a scrupulous and inquisitive reason: they abhor a defiling the mysteries of Christianity with an intermixture of heathenish philosophy, and judge it very improper to reduce divinity to an obscure speculative science, whose end is such a happiness as can be gained only by the means of practice.
— from In Praise of Folly Illustrated with Many Curious Cuts by Desiderius Erasmus

"And I implore you not to look at me during the ceremony; I shall certainly laugh if you do."
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

The greatest disgrace that can befall them is to have abandoned their shields.
— from The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus by Cornelius Tacitus

The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

2. The downfall of Christianity,—through its morality (which is insuperable), which finally turns against the Christian God Himself (the sense of truth, highly developed through Christianity, ultimately revolts against the falsehood and fictitiousness of all Christian interpretations of the world and its history.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book I and II by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

I immediately recognised that marvellous region in which, on that day, the Captain did the honours to us.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne

On June 6th, Admiral Davis, who had succeeded Commodore Foote, destroyed the Confederate fleet in front of Memphis after an engagement of an hour and a half.
— from From Fort Henry to Corinth by M. F. (Manning Ferguson) Force

In 1700 Mencke declared that “Certainly Dryden was the most excellent of English poets; in every kind of poetry, but especially as a writer of tragedies.
— from Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, January 1885 by Various

it’s nice to be you,” he said, dropping the case in his vest.
— from A Double Knot by George Manville Fenn

His master moved to Mexia, Texas, during the Civil War.
— from Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Volume XVI, Texas Narratives, Part 3 by United States. Work Projects Administration

Buck had been given up as an advancer of paradoxes, and nobody but Carte had dared to controvert the popular belief.
— from Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard the Third by Horace Walpole

But his patience and his temper at last caved in, and seizing his opponent by the neck with his left hand, and thrusting him down upon the ground, he began very deliberately to cuff him with his right, in a way that seemed anything but pleasant to the individual upon whom his cuffs were bestowed.
— from Wild Northern Scenes Or, Sporting Adventures with the Rifle and the Rod by S. H. (Samuel H.) Hammond

The teacher of the law has forgotten his hunger, the water-carrier his hard work, the peddler the blows and derision that continually fall to his lot, and the rich usurer his gain.
— from The Jews of Barnow: Stories by Karl Emil Franzos

Government feared that, if they began to undersell the merchants and dealers, those classes would give up business, which, in the Government's opinion, would be a very great evil.
— from The History of the Great Irish Famine of 1847 (3rd ed.) (1902) With Notices of Earlier Irish Famines by O'Rourke, John, Canon

A few minutes elapsed without his appearance in the sick man's room, however, and, with his characteristic impatience, De Vaux concluded that "the fools had said he was asleep," and was sending to declare the contrary, when the door was quietly opened, and the person he wished for approached his bedside.
— from The Gipsy: A Tale (Vols I & II) by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James