It is manifest therefore that the Right which the Common-wealth (that is, he, or they that represent it) hath to Punish, is not grounded on any concession, or gift of the Subjects.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

The dialect of these speculations is now grown obsolete for us; but one still reads them with a singular attraction.
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

“I never got on to Nietzsche,” he said.
— from Howards End by E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster

But he who worships with such things,—that is, foul and obscene things,—and that not the true God, namely, the maker of soul and body, but a creature, even though not a wicked creature, whether it be soul or body, or soul and body together, twice sins against God, because he both worships for God what is not God, and also worships with such things as neither God nor what is not God ought to be worshipped with.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

When they first showed, last night, I tried to knock some down with a pole, but it didn't reach, which astonished me; then I tried clods till I was all tired out, but I never got one.
— from Eve's Diary, Complete by Mark Twain

Justice is his due, and he alone can obtain it, and in such a case there is no government on earth so foolish as to punish him for so doing.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

He is never guilty of a sad thought but a merry one is twin-born with it.
— from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The heavy black horse, sixteen hands high, shied, throwing back its ears; but the pockmarked Guardsman drove his huge spurs in violently, and the horse, flourishing its tail and extending its neck, galloped on yet faster.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Likewise if the water in the spring is itself limpid and clear, if there is no growth of moss or reeds where it spreads and flows, and if its bed is not polluted by filth of any sort but has a clean appearance, these signs indicate that the water is light and wholesome in the highest degree.
— from The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio

Do not weep, good fools; There is no cause; when you shall know your mistress Has deserv'd prison, then abound in tears As I come out: this action I now go on Is for my better grace.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

A pious individual named Guy offered them some money, which they refused, and when it was wished to know from them, why, being so poor, they would not take it, they made this answer: "We have left all that we possessed, according to the Evangelical counsel.
— from The Life and Legends of Saint Francis of Assisi by Candide Chalippe

Because there is nothing going on—it's all on the surface—the charm, the man's engaging ways and manners—all surface. . . .
— from Ailsa Paige: A Novel by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers

But the wheat of Woggora is not good, owing probably to the height of that province.
— from Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 3 (of 5) In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773 by James Bruce

How many lovers have mutually murmured that: "If we could die now !"—nothing impaired, nothing gone or to go from them: the sanity in the madness, the courage in the cowardice. . . .
— from Browning's Heroines by Ethel Colburn Mayne

Before the sun has risen they congregate in the village streets, and set out in the dark and cold of the frosty morning in noisy groups, on expeditions into the surrounding country, with bags on their shoulders, in which they collect the kindly "calenigs," or New Year's gifts, prepared for them in every farm and homestead.
— from Garthowen A Story of a Welsh Homestead by Allen Raine

other saith, “There is no God, O son, If thou be none.”
— from Songs Before Sunrise by Algernon Charles Swinburne

Judging from what is now going on upon the continent of Europe, much remains to be accomplished.
— from A Librarian's Open Shelf: Essays on Various Subjects by Arthur E. (Arthur Elmore) Bostwick

"And now you've given it me to keep, to put my hands round it—so—and take care of it and see that it never goes out.
— from The Divine Fire by May Sinclair