And he used to give banquets in this fashion:—First of all, he would sit at dinner, with two or three friends, till late in the day; and then he would invite in any one who came to see him, even if they had already dined; and if any one came too soon, they would walk up and down, and ask those who came out of the house what there was on the table, and what o’clock it was; and then, if there were only vegetables or salt fish, they would depart; but if they heard it was meat, they would go in.
— from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius

[108] which is normally accompanied with a specific pleasure which we call ‘æsthetic,’ but has often no discoverable relation to the general usefulness or agreeableness of the thing discerned to be beautiful: indeed, we often recognise this kind of excellence in things hurtful and dangerous.
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick

The prize of efficiency is immediate entry into the hardships and dangers of the oversea patrol.
— from Submarine and Anti-submarine by Newbolt, Henry John, Sir

Even if they have a doubt, they will be satisfied as soon as they see the name on our bows.
— from A Roving Commission; Or, Through the Black Insurrection at Hayti by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

Vera was busily engaged in the house, and devoted much care and taste to the choice of Marfinka’s trousseau.
— from The Precipice by Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov

He, on the earth who lay, meanwhile extends His sharpen'd visage, and draws down the ears Into the head, as doth the slug his horns.
— from The Divine Comedy by Dante, Illustrated, Hell, Volume 08 by Dante Alighieri

[17] I have worked it out myself in more than four thousand cases by rule of thumb ( Field , October 1882), and obtained the same result; if in the teeth of this, early in the hand , a decent Whist-player plays the king second on a small card led, it is an unnecessarily high card; and as unnecessarily high cards are not played without an object, that object is presumably a call for trumps.
— from Whist; or, Bumblepuppy? Thirteen Lectures Addressed to Children by John Petch Hewby

The two skulls struck against each other; a spark, not likely to be seen by those standing near, was doubtless exchanged between the head that made 'The Philosophical Dictionary' and the head that made 'The Social Contract,' When that was done, when the sack was shaken, when Voltaire and Rousseau had been emptied into that hole, a digger seized a spade, threw into the opening the heap of earth, and filled up the grave.
— from Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 01 Little Journeys to the Homes of Good Men and Great by Elbert Hubbard

Such self conceited and ignorant people, and withal, unstable, turn the scripture to a wrong and false meaning—make it speak what it was never intended to speak; and going by their false and erroneous interpretations, are plunged into fatal errors—and ruined forever—go down to the grave with a lie in their right hand—are left of God, in his sovereign pleasure, a prey to their own chosen blindness, and perish eternally in their heresies and delusions.
— from Twenty-four Discourses On Some of the Important and Interesting Truths, Duties, and Institutions, of the Gospel, and the General Excellency of the Christian Religion; Calculated for the People of God of Every Communion, Particularly for the Benefit of Pious Families, and the Instruction of All in the Things Which Concern Their Salvation by Nathan Perkins

It is also considered a bad omen to bring eggs into the house after dark, and many persons avoid burning egg-shells lest the hens should cease to lay.
— from Domestic folk-lore by T. F. (Thomas Firminger) Thiselton-Dyer