But because we cannot discover it anywhere except in good report, propriety, and moral rectitude, we look upon these three for that reason as the first and the highest objects of endeavour, while what we term expediency we account not so much an ornament to our dignity as a necessary incident to living.
— from De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero

24th Monday 1805 Set out early for the river and proceeded on the Same road I had prevsly gorn to the Island at which place I had found the Chief & formed a Camp several 8 or 9 men Sick, Capt Lewis Sick all Complain of a Lax & heaviness at the Stomack, I gave rushes Pills to Several hot day maney Indians &
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

But the fever, allayed for an instant, gradually resumed possession of him.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

He was particularly clever in getting round people and assuming whatever part he thought most to their taste, if he detected the slightest advantage to himself from doing so.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“Is it in good repair?” “Perfect.
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Charles Dudley Warner

Some notice of this case will be found in North’s “Examen,” p. 558; but the copious and interesting note in Ormerod’s “History of Cheshire,” Vol. iii., p. 291, will best satisfy the reader, who will not fail to be struck by the paragraph with which it is closed-viz., “It is not improbable that Alexander Fitton, who, in the first instance, gained rightful possession of Gawsworth under an acknowledged settlement, was driven headlong into unpremeditated guilt by the production of a revocation by will which Lord Gerard had so long concealed.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

The only difference is, great robbers punish little ones, to keep them in their obedience; but the great ones are rewarded with laurels and triumphs, because they are too big for the weak hands of justice in this world, and have the power in their own possession, which should punish offenders.
— from Second Treatise of Government by John Locke

There were Andover and Exeter with their memories of New England dead—large, college-like democracies; St. Mark's, Groton, St. Regis'—recruited from Boston and the Knickerbocker families of New York; St. Paul's, with its great rinks; Pomfret and St. George's, prosperous and well-dressed; Taft and Hotchkiss, which prepared the wealth of the Middle West for social success at Yale; Pawling, Westminster, Choate, Kent, and a hundred others; all milling out their well-set-up, conventional, impressive type, year after year; their mental stimulus the college entrance exams; their vague purpose set forth in a hundred circulars as “To impart a Thorough Mental, Moral, and Physical Training as a Christian Gentleman, to fit the boy for meeting the problems of his day and generation, and to give a solid foundation in the Arts and Sciences.”
— from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott (Francis Scott) Fitzgerald

In "getting religion" people get neither sense, knowledge, nor morality.
— from The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors; Or, Christianity Before Christ by Kersey Graves

tahùtáhù n idle gossip, reports passed around to instigate a quarrel.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

On the other hand, Blake, in Geological Report, Pacific Railroad Rep., vol.
— from The Earth as Modified by Human Action by George P. (George Perkins) Marsh

The composer went one last time to Halle and arrived in Germany, Rolland points out, just at the time his greatest contemporary, Bach, died in Leipzig.
— from George Frideric Handel by Herbert F. (Herbert Francis) Peyser

Bare, crude, unfinished, chaotic, it gives rich promise of magnificent fulfillment.
— from Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber

People in general read poetry without any passion at all, or else overstep the modesty of nature and read not like scholars.
— from The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 by Thomas De Quincey

He could see the great bare dormitory in the orphan school, a room whose walls were decorated with huge scrolled mottoes—and there was the one on the end wall with its great red painted letters, and the same old crack in the plaster that zigzagged its way through the words.
— from From Now On by Frank L. (Frank Lucius) Packard

We must go down And work our souls like mines, make books our lamps, Not shrines to worship at, nor heed the world— Let it go roaring past.
— from Poems Third Edition by Alexander Smith

If taken in time, this frequently succeeds; and it rarely fails in the short sickness that is sometimes felt in excursions down in the bay of New York; or in Boston harbour, when the water is rough; or in going round Point Judith; or in a trip by sea to any of the coast bathing-places.
— from Miss Leslie's Lady's New Receipt-Book, 3rd ed. A Useful Guide for Large or Small Families, Containing Directions for Cooking, Preserving, Pickling... by Eliza Leslie

"Well, upon my word, I think he is, Gunton," returned Philip.
— from The Mysteries of Heron Dyke: A Novel of Incident. Volume 3 (of 3) by T. W. (Thomas Wilkinson) Speight