The English version of the following line, is not near so pretty as the Scots original, which goes thus:— “I once was a bachelor, both early and young,
— from The Every-day Book and Table Book. v. 2 (of 3) or Everlasting Calendar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, in past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Month, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the Almanac by William Hone

that as he cast his eye Among the coleworts on a butterfly, 580 He saw false Reynard where he lay full low: I need not swear he had no list to crow: But cried cock, cock , and gave a sudden start, As sore dismay'd, and frighted at his heart: For birds and beasts, inform'd by nature, know Kinds opposite to theirs, and fly their foe; So Chanticleer, who never saw a fox, Yet shunn'd him as a sailor shuns the rocks.
— from The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Volume 2 With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by John Dryden

You have given this, doctor, as an instance that the first love is not necessarily the strongest, and this, no doubt, is frequently true.
— from Gryll Grange by Thomas Love Peacock

In South Nillandoo atoll, the natives say that three of the islets were formerly larger: in North Nillandoo there is one now being washed away; and in this latter atoll Lieutenant Prentice found a reef, about six hundred yards in diameter, which the natives positively affirmed was lately an island covered with cocoa-nut trees.
— from Coral Reefs; Volcanic Islands; South American Geology — Complete by Charles Darwin

If a certain longing for things and people far away came near possessing me, I would not allow it to make me miserable, for longing is not necessarily unhappiness, and I had set my mind like a flint against being dissatisfied with my present state.
— from A Woman who went to Alaska by May Kellogg Sullivan

If God used human words, he surely used them for the purpose of conveying ideas to human minds; for language is not necessary to Him, much less would human language be the vehicle of His infinite thought.
— from Unitarianism Defended A Series of Lectures by Three Protestant Dissenting Ministers of Liverpool by John Hamilton Thom

The two following letters I need not explain.
— from Agincourt: A Romance The Works of G. P. R. James, Volume XX by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

The cock, that of his flesh was ever free, Sung merrier than the mermaid in the sea; And so befel, that as he cast his eye, Among the colworts, on a butterfly, He saw false Reynard where he lay full low; I need not swear he had no list to crow; But cried, cock, cock , and gave a sudden start, As sore dismayed and frighted at his heart.
— from The Works of John Dryden, now first collected in Eighteen Volumes, Volume 11 by John Dryden

‘The man who wants to gamble for life itself need not be balked now.’
— from Lord Kilgobbin by Charles James Lever