The lines which divide authority from oppression, liberty from license, and right from might, are to their eyes so jumbled together and confused, that no one knows exactly what he is, or what he may be, or what he ought to be.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

Reverence for one’s own sacred things—parents, religion, flag, laws, and respect for one’s own beliefs—these are feelings which we cannot even help.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

As he sat on the grass and looked across the river, a dark hole in the bank opposite, just above the water’s edge, caught his eye, and dreamily he fell to considering what a nice snug dwelling-place it would make for an animal with few wants and fond of a bijou riverside residence, above flood level and remote from noise and dust.
— from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Furor loquendi —A rage for speaking.
— 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.

As he sat on the grass and looked across the river, a dark hole in the bank opposite, just Page 7 [Pg 7] above the water's edge, caught his eye, and dreamily he fell to considering what a nice, snug dwelling-place it would make for an animal with few wants and fond of a bijou riverside residence, above flood level and remote from noise and dust.
— from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Meantime to Turnus, ambush’d in the shade, With heavy tidings came th’ unhappy maid: “The Volscians overthrown, Camilla kill’d; The foes, entirely masters of the field, Like a resistless flood, come rolling on: The cry goes off the plain, and thickens to the town.”
— from The Aeneid by Virgil

There are moments when a bit of rope, a pole, the branch of a tree, is life itself, and it is a terrible thing to see a living being detach himself from it and fall like a ripe fruit.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

People vociferate, shout, howl, there they break forth and writhe with enjoyment; gayety roars; sarcasm flames forth, joviality is flaunted like a red flag; two jades there drag farce blossomed forth into an apotheosis; it is the triumphal car of laughter.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Speaking about foreign languages Al the next time I see you I will be talking French like a regular Frenchman and you will have to ask me to translate what I am talking about.
— from Treat 'em Rough: Letters from Jack the Kaiser Killer by Ring Lardner

What makes the people of Weihaiwei law-abiding, peaceful, industrious, punctual in the payment of taxes, honest in their dealings one with another is not some mysterious ruling faculty on the part of the three or four foreign administrators who are placed over them, but something that has existed in [435] China from a time when the ancestors of those administrators were painted savages and England was not even a name: it is filial piety, it is reverence for law and respect for those in authority, it is the cult of ancestors,—it is, in short, Confucianism.
— from Lion and Dragon in Northern China by Johnston, Reginald Fleming, Sir

And high above the city walls, that shone as burnished silver in the sun, rose the temple flaming like a ruby flame--the temple sacred to the god Itmightbe.
— from The Uncrowned King by Harold Bell Wright

The Frenchman looked at Rollo for enlightenment.
— from The Firebrand by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett

The laudable custom adopted by agricultural societies of rewarding labourers for living and rearing families upon ten shillings a week, might be carried further out.
— from Punch - Volume 25 (Jul-Dec 1853) by Various

As examples of a lawyer's reputation in London in the seventeenth century, Mr. Warren cites the titles of the following tracts printed at that time: "The Downfall of Unjust Lawyers"; "Doomsday [Pg 13] Drawing Near with Thunder and Lightning for Lawyers"; "A Rod for Lawyers who are Hereby declared Robbers and Deceivers of the Nation"; "Essay where is Described the Lawyers, Smugglers and Officers Frauds."
— from Ethics in Service by William H. (William Howard) Taft

Rebel, criminal, worthy of the scaffold, I know it,” cried the impassioned youth, falling on his knees; “but a rebel for love, a rebel for you, whom my sword will at last achieve for me.”
— from Cinq Mars — Complete by Alfred de Vigny

His desire for blood returned, burning his brain and pervading his frame like a raging fever; he arose in his turn, reached his hand to his belt, drew forth a pistol, and cocked it.
— from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas