For he that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good which he performs, but for the evil which he forbears.
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott

“You have got so thin,” said he, “that uncharitable people will be rather hard on you.”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

And the only way of learning how to use properly a thing is through its misuse.
— from My Reminiscences by Rabindranath Tagore

H2 anchor A PAIR OF SILK STOCKINGS Little Mrs. Sommers one day found herself the unexpected possessor of fifteen dollars.
— from The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin

Rhyme that had no inward necessity to be rhymed;—it ought to have told us plainly, without any jingle, what it was aiming at.
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

Now when they heard that unknown people were came to the country, who were of distinguished appearance, and conducted themselves peaceably, Dixen repaired to them with a message from Queen Geira, inviting the strangers to take up their winter abode with her; for the summer was almost spent, and the weather was severe and stormy.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

Genius, he held, is necessarily intolerant of fetters: on the one hand it must have the utmost play for its spontaneity; on the other, it may confidently await those messages from the universe which summon it to its peculiar work, only placing itself in an attitude of receptivity towards all sublime chances.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

The matrons and maids in attendance on lady Feng, perceiving that this was the first time their mistress met Ch'in Chung, (and knowing) that she had not at hand the usual presents, forthwith ran over to the other side and told P'ing Erh about it.
— from Hung Lou Meng, or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel, Book I by Xueqin Cao

Out of the Dionysian root of the German spirit a power has arisen which has nothing in common with the primitive conditions of Socratic culture, and can neither be explained nor excused thereby, but is rather regarded by this culture as something terribly inexplicable and overwhelmingly hostile,mdash;namely, German music as we have to understand [Pg 151] it, especially in its vast solar orbit from Bach to Beethoven, from Beethoven to Wagner.
— from The Birth of Tragedy; or, Hellenism and Pessimism by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

I have before shewn how the unemployed Parts of Life appear long and tedious, and shall here endeavour to shew how those Parts of Life which are exercised in Study, Reading, and the Pursuits of Knowledge, are long but not tedious, and by that means discover a Method of lengthening our Lives, and at the same time of turning all the Parts of them to our Advantage.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

When this answer reached London, Whitlocke, who had all along, as he tells us, protested that Monk's object was delay only and "that the bottom of his design was to bring in the King," repeated more earnestly his former advice that Lambert should be pushed on to immediate action.
— from The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 Narrated in Connexion with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of His Time by David Masson

I have before shown how the unemployed parts of life appear long and tedious, and shall here endeavour to show how those parts of life which are exercised in study, reading, and the pursuits of knowledge, are long, but not tedious, and by that means discover a method of lengthening our lives, and at the same time of turning all the parts of them to our advantage.
— from Essays and Tales by Joseph Addison

This was a new and, he thought, ugly phase in his life.
— from The Way of Ambition by Robert Hichens

My God, Mr. Flint, ain't it something turrible the things happens to us pore folks?"
— from Slippy McGee, Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man by Marie Conway Oemler

"I have taken up position after position which I considered impregnable; I have always been turned off by your infantry, who come along in great lines in their dirty clothes with bags on their backs.
— from The Record of a Regiment of the Line Being a Regimental History of the 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment during the Boer War 1899-1902 by Mainwaring George Jacson

He tells us plainly that these are the ideas with which he is going to unravel the most delicate questions; but he is willing to entertain his immediate audience, and propitiate the world generally, by trying them, or rather giving orders to have them tried, on other things first.
— from The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded by Delia Salter Bacon

By this time, however, a large number of the enemy had taken up positions in it, and the British were once more gradually driven back.
— from The Great War in England in 1897 by William Le Queux

He felt the eyes of the older men in the organization turned on him with curiosity, with approval, and with a little jealous alarm which gave him the utmost pleasure.
— from Rough-Hewn by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Hence, their unparalleled [p.185] success furnishes the most substantial and conclusive evidence, sustaining the correctness of the doctrine we have adduced, and the general principle of rational practice suggested and imperatively demanded by the pathology of the disease.
— from Asiatic Cholera: A treatise on its origin, pathology, treatment, and cure by Elijah Whitney