I would go to the fountain-head.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

My mother, inquisitive like a woman, asked M. Grimani to tell her the meaning of the lines, but as the abbe was not any wiser than she was M. Baffo translated it in a whisper.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

(1 Kings 3. 9) "Give to thy servant understanding, to judge thy people, and to discerne between Good and Evill."
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

People listened on their thresholds, to the rumors, the shouts, the tumult, the dull and indistinct sounds, to the things that were said: “It is cavalry,” or: “Those are the caissons galloping,” to the trumpets, the drums, the firing, and, above all, to that lamentable alarm peal from Saint-Merry.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Then write again, FAUSTUS GIVES TO THEE HIS SOUL.
— from The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus From the Quarto of 1604 by Christopher Marlowe

15 Men are often capable of greater things than they perform.
— 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.

It was a monstrous task to keep even a semblance of harmony among them, and it was a marvel to me that he got them to the city without a mighty battle among themselves.
— from A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

The master of the house was away, but the wife and the maid-servant laughed at the man, and merrily said they would go to the barn to protect him.
— from British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes

Our loyal Gardes-du-Corps, ever since the Insurrection of Women, are disbanded; gone to their homes; gone, many of them, across the Rhine towards Coblentz and Exiled Princes: brave Miomandre and brave Tardivet, these faithful Two, have received, in nocturnal interview with both Majesties, their viaticum of gold louis, of heartfelt thanks from a Queen's lips, though unluckily 'his Majesty stood, back to fire, not speaking;' ( Campan, ii. 109-11. ) and do now dine through the Provinces; recounting hairsbreadth escapes, insurrectionary horrors.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

And with success they carried out their scheme, And made the world do homage unto hell; With God to threaten vengeance unto all, And Devil to affright them at their call, With blood of God's own Son—a horrid stream— To wash men's souls, they have succeeded well!
— from The Cross and Crown by T. D. (Thomas Day) Curtis

“But in the meantime,” proceeded Coke, “here have I gone to the trouble of giving such a profound decision upon a mere translation!
— from The Black Baronet; or, The Chronicles Of Ballytrain The Works of William Carleton, Volume One by William Carleton

I have also known many laboring men that have got good estates in this valley of Humiliation; for 'God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.'
— from The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read by John Bunyan

The scows were caught steadily now in the grip of the river, and it seemed to Kent, as he watched them go, that they were the last fugitives fleeing from the encroaching monsters of steel.
— from The Valley of Silent Men: A Story of the Three River Country by James Oliver Curwood

All crossed in their inexorable mechanic might, flying to their distant goal, to the future, almost grazing, without taking heed of it, the half-severed head of this man whom another man had slaughtered.
— from The Monomaniac (La bête humaine) by Émile Zola

O give thanks to the Lord of Lords!"
— from The Mormon Doctrine of Deity: The Roberts-Van Der Donckt Discussion To which is added a discourse, Jesus Christ, the revelation of God; also a collection of authoritative Mormon utterances on the being and nature of God by B. H. (Brigham Henry) Roberts

Every man goes through the world, like Hernani, waiting for the summons of the fatal horn.
— from Studies in Modern Music, Second Series Frederick Chopin, Antonin Dvořák, Johannes Brahms by W. H. (William Henry) Hadow

So vigorously did he work his guns that the frigates received such injury in their sails and rigging as to be compelled to sheer off to repair damages.
— from How Britannia Came to Rule the Waves Updated to 1900 by William Henry Giles Kingston