However, if, right or wrong, you determine to rule, you must carry out your principle and punish the Mitylenians as your interest requires; or else you must give up your empire and cultivate honesty without danger.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

I ask you to remember how you came to me two years ago, and on this very spot I begged you, I besought you to give up your errors; I reminded you of your duty, of your honour, of what you owed to your forefathers whose traditions we ought to preserve as sacred.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Mine says the door was dry by three this morning.’ “‘Did some of the ladies go upstairs yesterday evening to see it?’
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Percy is but my factor, good my lord, T’ engross up glorious deeds on my behalf; And I will call hall to so strict account, That he shall render every glory up, Yea, even the slightest worship of his time,
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

This sign I give unto you: every people speaketh its language of good and evil: this its neighbour understandeth not.
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

But in the morning, as the carts clanked by, and children shouted down the lane; as the hucksters came calling their wares, and the church clock struck eleven, and he and she had not got up yet, even to breakfast, he could not help feeling guilty, as if he were committing a breach of the law—ashamed that he was not up and doing.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

I’ll talk no more, our Words exchange our Souls, and every Look fades all my blooming Honour, like Sun-beams on unguarded Roses—Take all our Kingdoms —make our People Slaves, and let me fall beneath your conquering Sword: but never let me hear you talk again, or gaze upon your Eyes.— Goes out.
— from The Works of Aphra Behn, Volume IV by Aphra Behn

But once she thinks you’ve given up your economic independence she’ll simply turn round and help Lady Torrington to hunt you down.”
— from Priscilla's Spies by George A. Birmingham

27. 'By your sacrifices you have gained a place among the celestial gods, your fame is shining far and wide, your feet reflect the splendour of the head-ornaments of the kings (your vassals)—what then is it that you long for to give up your eyesight?'
— from The Gâtakamâlâ; Or, Garland of Birth-Stories by Aryasura

No advanced government upon your Earth has ever undertaken a public service of any magnitude for a long term, which has not been systematized and improved by all the available knowledge and science of its time.
— from The Man from Mars: His Morals, Politics and Religion by William Simpson

Thebes did his green unknowing youth engage, He chooses Athens in his riper age.
— from Oxford by Edward Thomas

“‘I am a wolf indeed,’ I cried, ‘and I am a wizard indeed, and I will bring wolves and ghosts upon you ere all is done.’
— from Nada the Lily by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

To take a parallel case:—a physician may tell you, that if you are to preserve your health, you must give up your employment and retire to the country.
— from The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated In Nine Discourses Delivered to the Catholics of Dublin by John Henry Newman

“I’ll not let you go until you explain some of the stories you’ve told me about Dick Mapes and his family.”
— from On Adventure Island by Bess Moyer