What is there too we are more anxious to conceal from others than such blunders, infirmities, and meannesses, or more dread to have exposed by raillery and satire?
— from An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume

His analysis of the two campaigns in Spain and Africa is the noblest monument that has ever been raised to the fame of Caesar.
— 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

He had likewise passed through large townships, all of which he mentioned by name, and had everywhere been received with great respect.
— from The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 1 (of 2) Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain. by Bernal Díaz del Castillo

RAGNAR'S exaction from Daxo, his son's slayer, was a yearly tribute brought by himself and twelve of his elders barefoot, resembling in part such submissions as occur in the Angevin family history, the case of the Calais burgesses, and of such criminals as the Corporation of Oxford, whose penance was only finally renounced by the local patriots in our own day.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

According to Lacroix du Maine, Montaigne, upon the death of his eldest brother, resigned his post of Councillor, in order to adopt the military profession, while, if we might credit the President Bouhier, he never discharged any functions connected with arms.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

I would show that justice and kindness are no mere abstract terms, no mere moral conceptions framed by the understanding, but true affections of the heart enlightened by reason, the natural outcome of our primitive affections; that by reason alone, unaided by conscience, we cannot establish any natural law, and that all natural right is a vain dream if it does not rest upon some instinctive need of the human heart.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"Do not believe merely because the written statement of some old sage is produced; do not be sure that the writing has ever been revised by the said sage, or can be relied on.
— from Ancient Faiths And Modern A Dissertation upon Worships, Legends and Divinities in Central and Western Asia, Europe, and Elsewhere, Before the Christian Era. Showing Their Relations to Religious Customs as They Now Exist. by Thomas Inman

this heart, excited by rage and fury, has often conceived the horrid idea of murdering your husband—you—myself!
— from The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

By an unaccountable oversight the canals, which covered two sides of Dublin, had been left open, when by stockading the bridges they could have easily been rendered defensible, and have thus placed an impassable obstruction to any bodies who might approach the city from Kildare.
— from Cruikshank's Water Colours by William Harrison Ainsworth

The girl went whiter than her pillows and half closed her eyes; but Rose, who would have been terrified at the sight of an elderly farmer, was buoyantly relieved and at her ease.
— from Love Stories by Mary Roberts Rinehart

The stairs curving on the left had evidently been recarpeted, but in a very dull red that harmonized with the mellow tints of the old house.
— from Black Oxen by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

It has ever been regarded as a symbol of sorrow or pity, as its name implies.
— from The Mystery and Romance of Alchemy and Pharmacy by C. J. S. (Charles John Samuel) Thompson

Held only sporadically and by individuals, it has ever been regarded by the church at large as heresy.
— from Systematic Theology (Volume 2 of 3) by Augustus Hopkins Strong

The three chums wanted to ask Fenn all sorts of questions about his experiences, but Ruth, who constituted herself a sort of emergency nurse, forbade them.
— from Fenn Masterson's Discovery; or, The Darewell Chums on a Cruise by Allen Chapman

Her color rose, and there was an ominous sparkle in her eye; but Richard answered composedly: “Yes; I have to meet Medway and Stephenson.
— from Our Bessie by Rosa Nouchette Carey