The enemy is more easily repulsed if we never 15 suffer him to get within us, but, upon the very first approach, draw up our forces and fight him without the gate.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

At the first setting out of this bank, it was the opinion of some people, that how fast soever its coffers might be emptied, it might easily replenish them, by raising money upon the securities of those to whom it had advanced its paper.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

“The Bible, Mr Sims, is a very dangerous book, if read by the laity, without the proper interpretation of those deputed by Holy Church to explain its meaning,” emphatically replied Mr Lerew.
— from Clara Maynard; Or, The True and the False: A Tale of the Times by William Henry Giles Kingston

But surely, of all people, in dress and aspect Queen Elizabeth is most easily recognised.
— from The Book of Dreams and Ghosts by Andrew Lang

The senate lost nothing by his honors, but preserved even its most extensive rights.
— from A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 10 by Voltaire

'I assure you, that when my health permits, I never sit down to table without having fatigued myself, either in military exercise, rural labour, or some other toilsome employment, to which I apply myself with pleasure.
— from Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 455 Volume 18, New Series, September 18, 1852 by Various

There arose too a whole catalogue of ceremonies—ceremonies of Initiation, by which the novice should learn to keep within the good grace of the Powers, and under the blessing of his Tribe and the protection of its Totem; ceremonies of Eucharistic meals which should restore the lost sanctity of the common life and remove the sense of guilt and isolation; ceremonies of Marriage and rules and rites of sex-connection, fitted to curb the terrific and demonic violence of passions which else indeed might easily rend the community asunder.
— from Pagan and Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning by Edward Carpenter

And I don't want much experience in my editor; rather not have it.
— from A Hazard of New Fortunes — Complete by William Dean Howells

This had a far-reaching effect: it made every Roman soldier a self-reliant unit, who could fence skilfully with his favourite weapon, the sword, instead of merely pushing a long pike as his neighbours did.
— from The Grandeur That Was Rome by J. C. (John Clarke) Stobart

The "magnificent animal," I knew, had never appealed to her except as it was represented in horse-flesh; and yet the "magnificent animal" was what in her eyes I must ever remain.
— from The Romance of a Plain Man by Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow

“Even I may err,” replied Hadrian.
— from The Emperor — Complete by Georg Ebers

The quantity of her religion it is impossible to deny, but I doubt its quality being right; and when I see that her high-flown mystical ideas end in making everybody round her perfectly miserable, I go back to the suspicions I have entertained for some time that the old simple religion we were taught at four years old out of Watt’s catechism is the real right thing after all.
— from Miss Eden's Letters by Emily Eden