That the senses should be played upon is nothing, if no deeper reaction is aroused.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

For there is no drunken revelry in Sparta, and any one found in a state of intoxication is severely punished; he is not excused as an Athenian would be at Athens on account of a festival.
— from Laws by Plato

"This meeting, having reason to apprehend that divers under our name are concerned in the unchristian traffic in Negros, doth recommend it earnestly to the care of Friends every where, to discourage, as much as in them lies, a practice so repugnant to our Christian profession; and to deal with all such as shall persevere in a conduct so reproachful to Christianity; and to disown them, if they desist not therefrom."
— from The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808), Volume I by Thomas Clarkson

In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil: every one who is not doing righteousness is not of God, neither he that is not loving his brother.
— from Expositor's Bible: The Epistles of St. John by William Alexander

Miss Yonge in her History of Christian Names , is no doubt right in taking Isabel to be another form of Elizabeth, with which it is historically shown to have interchanged.
— from Surnames as a Science by Robert Ferguson

It is disgraceful that our M ARINE is not directly represented in the British Parliament.
— from On Naval Timber and Arboriculture With Critical Notes on Authors who have Recently Treated the Subject of Planting by Patrick Matthew

I now doubly rejoice in having taken a step which a feeling of false shame, and that odious worldly maxim, “Don’t interfere in the affairs of others,” which occurred to me while writing, nearly deterred me from carrying out.
— from Letters of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy from 1833 to 1847 by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

“That was an unfortunate affair,” he continued, “and the man who did it, no doubt regretted it immediately.”
— from The Northfield Tragedy; or, the Robber's Raid A Thrilling Narrative; A history of the remarkable attempt to rob the bank at Northfield, Minnesota; the Cold-Blooded Murder of the Brave Cashier and an Inoffensive Citizen. The Slaying of Two of the Brigands. The Wonderful Robber Hunt and Capture Graphically Described. Biographies of the Victims, the Captors & the Notorious Younger and James Gang of Desperadoes by J. H. (Joseph Have) Hanson

Marius, let your wife's tears be the rain, and mind that it never does rain in your household.
— from Les Misérables, v. 5/5: Jean Valjean by Victor Hugo

The Balms mart was obviously the autumn fairtide, and Mr Malden is no doubt right in identifying Balms (Bammys, Bammes) with Bamis, the local Flemish name of St Rémy; St Rémy's Day was October 28, and the Balms mart was not the mart held on August 8 at [pg 194] St Rémy, but the mart held on and round about St Rémy's Day.
— from Medieval People by Eileen Power

i nostri diretri rivolga il cielo a se', saprai; ma prima scias quod ego fui successor Petri.
— from La Divina Commedia di Dante: Complete by Dante Alighieri