"That's very nice," he said gratefully, as he finished, adding with a pathetic sort of gayety, as he groped about with his one hand: "I don't expect napkins, but I should like a handkerchief.
— from Work: A Story of Experience by Louisa May Alcott

Cosi` per li gran savi si confessa che la fenice more e poi rinasce, quando al cinquecentesimo anno appressa; erba ne' biado in sua vita non pasce, ma sol d'incenso lagrime e d'amomo, e nardo e mirra son l'ultime fasce.
— from Divina Commedia di Dante: Inferno by Dante Alighieri

“I should not have mentioned it now,” cries Partridge, “if it had appeared so to me; for I'm sure I scorn any wickedness as much as another; but perhaps you know better; and yet I might have imagined that I should not have lived so many years, and have taught school so long, without being able to distinguish between fas et nefas ; but it seems we are all to live and learn.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

I never think of it even now, but I shudder with horror.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

The face of the charming girl, which had expressed nothing but indignation, spite and disdain, took an air of contentment and of placidity delightful to witness.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

This blessedness is named eternal, not because it shall endure for many ages, though at last it shall come to an end, but because, according to the words of the gospel, "of His kingdom there shall be no end."
— from The City of God, Volume II by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

This depends on the particular circumstances which may promote or prevent the natural consequences of that state of society—circumstances which are exceedingly numerous; but I shall only advert to a few of them.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

According to it, we must rise from a given beginning to one still higher; every part conducts us to a still smaller one; every event is preceded by another event which is its cause; and the conditions of existence rest always upon other and still higher conditions, and find neither end nor basis in some self-subsistent thing as the primal being.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

According to the conjecture of Gale (Antoninus's Itinerary in Britain, p. 92,) the same Faustinus possessed an estate near Bury, in Suffolk and another in the kingdom of Naples.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

The near relationship of the Slavic nations among each other, is exhibited in no feature more strikingly than in their national popular poetry, especially in the little lyric songs, the immediate effusion of their feelings, wishes, and cares; whilst epic poetry, which draws her materials from the external world, must hence, in every nation, be in some measure modified by their different fortunes and situations.
— from Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic Nations With a Sketch of Their Popular Poetry by Talvj

Lady E. No, but in something much nearer your heart—your system is threatened with a blow, that I think, and from my soul I hope, it never will recover: would you guess that the sagacious observations of your whole life are upon the point of being confounded by the production— Sir C. Of what? Lady E. A woman of ingenuous discretion, and a man of unaffected integrity.
— from The Heiress; a comedy, in five acts by John Burgoyne

"See anything to eat?" "No; but I see a good place to stay to-night.
— from Two Boy Gold Miners; Or, Lost in the Mountains by Frank V. Webster

His salary, though a good one for the time and place, was still humble according to our English notions; but it sufficed for his needs; and as yet it would have seemed hardly credible that in only twenty years the Ohio schoolmaster would rise to be President of the United States.
— from Biographies of Working Men by Grant Allen

I spell out each night, before I sleep, some vast new far-off love, this new daily sense of mutual service, this whole round world to measure one’s being against.
— from The Voice of the Machines An Introduction to the Twentieth Century by Gerald Stanley Lee

It is evident to an unbiassed mind that there must be a reason for everything, not because I so think, but I think so because such is the fact; that the multiplication table is right, not because I think so, but I must multiply according to it simply because it is right.
— from The Freedom of Science by Josef Donat

"They did not mean to have it come out until next week," explained Nora, "but in some unexplained way it became known, and now I suppose we may all congratulate them."
— from Brenda's Bargain: A Story for Girls by Helen Leah Reed