In my viewing the sea from that hill where I stood, I perceived a strong, and indeed a most furious current, which ran to the east, and even came close to the point; and I took the more notice of it because I saw there might be some danger that when I came into it I might be carried out to sea by the strength of it, and not be able to make the island again; and indeed, had I not got first upon this hill, I believe it would have been so; for there was the same current on the other side the island, only that it set off at a further distance, and I saw there was a strong eddy under the shore; so I had nothing to do but to get out of the first current, and I should presently be in an eddy.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Thus farr to try thee, Adam , I was pleas’d, And finde thee knowing not of Beasts alone, Which thou hast rightly nam’d, but of thy self, Expressing well the spirit within thee free, My Image, not imparted to the Brute, Whose fellowship therefore unmeet for thee Good reason was thou freely shouldst dislike, And be so minded still; I, ere thou spak’st, Knew it not good for Man to be alone, And no such companie as then thou saw’st Intended thee, for trial onely brought, To see how thou could’st judge of fit and meet: What next I bring shall please thee, be assur’d, Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self, Thy wish, exactly to thy hearts desire.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton

"I never guessed from his mere outside how valuable an animal he was," he remarked to the Indian, "and I am grateful to you for having shown me my error," said he.
— from The Arabian Nights Entertainments by Andrew Lang

To be ‘well dressed’ is the happy medium between these two, which is not given to every one to hold, inasmuch as good taste is rare, and is a sine quâ non thereof.
— from The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness Being a Complete Guide for a Gentleman's Conduct in All His Relations Towards Society by Cecil B. Hartley

This power, however, is not given by any technical rules, but is the gift of genius.
— from Phaedrus by Plato

He ended; and his words, replete with guile, Into her heart too easy entrance won: Fixed on the fruit she gazed, which to behold Might tempt alone; and in her ears the sound Yet rung of his persuasive words, impregned With reason, to her seeming, and with truth: Mean while the hour of noon drew on, and waked An eager appetite, raised by the smell So savoury of that fruit, which with desire, Inclinable now grown to touch or taste, Solicited her longing eye; yet first Pausing a while, thus to herself she mused.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton

Is not Gaunt dead?
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

I never go to the office of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, who more than once has been generous to Tuskegee, without being reminded of this.
— from Up from Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington

The divergence of 192 style is not greater than will appear in the letters of any active-minded man, written at different times and under different circumstances.
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon A revised text with introductions, notes and dissertations by J. B. (Joseph Barber) Lightfoot

Zielen ist nicht genug; es gilt Treffen —To aim is not enough; you must hit.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

“In these days, as of old, it is still said, ‘There is no God!’
— from Carmen Ariza by Charles Francis Stocking

There is no grander spot about Niagara than this.
— from Forty Thousand Miles Over Land and Water The Journal of a Tour Through the British Empire and America by Ethel Gwendoline Vincent

Whether he considers the admission on board of so domestic an animal to be a reflection on his own wild Viking habits, I cannot say; but there is no impertinence—even to the nibbling of her beard when she is asleep—of which he is not guilty towards the poor old thing, who passes the greater part of her mornings in gravely butting at her irreverent tormentor.
— from Letters from High Latitudes Being Some Account of a Voyage in 1856 of the Schooner Yacht "Foam" to Iceland, Jan Meyen, and Spitzbergen by Dufferin and Ava, Frederick Temple Blackwood, Marquis of

Even M. Taine, who consistently falls foul of all London architecture that is not Gothic, speaks thus of it: "The architecture ... has the merit of being neither Grecian nor Southern; it is Gothic, accommodated to the climate, to the requirements of the eye.
— from Highways and Byways in London by Emily Constance Baird Cook

The steamer is now gradually slackening her speed, preparatory to coming to a full stop not far from the southeastern extremity, and we realize that the first goal of this day's hopes is gained.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 93, July, 1865 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various

"I do think it is never going to set; here we have been hunting, hunting all the day, and got nothing for our pains."
— from Edwy the Fair or the First Chronicle of Aescendune A Tale of the Days of Saint Dunstan by A. D. (Augustine David) Crake

My husband says he is not going to take Gloria's actions without a protest.
— from The Social Gangster by Arthur B. (Arthur Benjamin) Reeve

My Stomach is not good
— from English Lands, Letters and Kings, vol. 1: From Celt to Tudor by Donald Grant Mitchell

It is not good to crowd round a wretched farthing rushlight when brilliant torches are close by; still less to run after will o' the wisps.
— from On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, and On the Will in Nature: Two Essays (revised edition) by Arthur Schopenhauer