Of the bearing of his opinions I need here give no special indication; yet it may be permitted me to say that I believed the little man not more earnest than right in what he said: with all his fire he was severe and sensible; he trampled Utopian theories under his heel; he rejected wild dreams with scorn;—but when he looked in the face of tyranny—oh, then there opened a light in his eye worth seeing; and when he spoke of injustice, his voice gave no uncertain sound, but reminded me rather of the band-trumpet, ringing at twilight from the park.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

It is the vessel of the Danaides; for it there is no highest good, no absolute good, but always a merely temporary good.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer

Once more, if nature had given a scope for things To be forever broken more and more, By now the bodies of matter would have been So far reduced by breakings in old days That from them nothing could, at season fixed, Be born, and arrive its prime and top of life.
— from On the Nature of Things by Titus Lucretius Carus

[‘ inning ’] innweardlīce = inweardlīce innweorud n. retainers, household , Wid 111. innylfe = innelfe inorf n. household goods, furniture .
— from A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary For the Use of Students by J. R. Clark (John R. Clark) Hall

This instantly necessitates his giving up all idea of being naïve , a privilege which belongs to superior minds sensible of their superiority, and therefore sure of themselves.
— from Essays of Schopenhauer by Arthur Schopenhauer

Bona nemini hora est, ut non alicui sit mala —There is no hour good for one man that is not bad for another.
— 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.

What would I not have given for some gray hairs!
— from The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal

Is not his Grace Protector to the King?
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

HAVING had occasion, lately, in the course of some Oriental investigations, to consult the Tellmenow Isitsoornot, a work which (like the Zohar of Simeon Jochaides) is scarcely known at all, even in Europe; and which has never been quoted, to my knowledge, by any American—if we except, perhaps, the author of the “Curiosities of American Literature”;—having had occasion, I say, to turn over some pages of the first-mentioned very remarkable work, I was not a little astonished to discover that the literary world has hitherto been strangely in error respecting the fate of the vizier’s daughter, Scheherazade, as that fate is depicted in the “Arabian Nights”; and that the denouement there given, if not altogether inaccurate, as far as it goes, is at least to blame in not having gone very much farther.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe

Here we easily see that nothing can be given in nature, however great it is judged by us to be, which could not if considered in another relation be reduced to the infinitely small; and conversely there is nothing so small, which does not admit of extension by our Imagination to the greatness of a world, if compared with still smaller standards.
— from Kant's Critique of Judgement by Immanuel Kant

In winter he may be found almost anywhere along the Massachusetts coast and southward, where he leads a [Pg 29] dog's life of it, notwithstanding his gay appearance.
— from Ways of Wood Folk by William J. (William Joseph) Long

When you will find that infant nationality has grown and we have developed according to our light our country will deliver that message and the world will listen.
— from India for Indians Enlarged Edition by Chitta Ranjan Das

The stalk became discoloured and stunted almost from the beginning of its growth; it changed its natural healthy green for a sickly greenish brown, the leaves literally curling like those of that species of ornamental holly known as the "screw-leaved."
— from The History of the Great Irish Famine of 1847 (3rd ed.) (1902) With Notices of Earlier Irish Famines by O'Rourke, John, Canon

For Ilion now (her great defender slain) Shall sink a smoking ruin on the plain.
— from The Iliad by Homer

He perceives in his solitude the first traces of that revolution which is not only threatening in France, but which will unchain at the first outbreak the fearful thunderstorm that is now hanging gloomily over his own country.
— from Through Night to Light: A Novel by Friedrich Spielhagen

106 A porter, carrying a pig's carcase, turned round suddenly to see the fun, and terrified the horse of Messer Gabbadeo, the surgeon; it reared and plunged, and overturned a whole pile of kitchenware in the booth beside it; saucepans, frying-pans, skimmers, graters, rolled over with a deafening crash; the horse bolted and carried away the terrified surgeon, his arms round its neck, his great bass voice alternately imploring God and the devil to rescue him.
— from The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci, the Forerunner by Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky

This word stabbed me, I tried to get away from it into my pillow, I was indignant—and at the same time what would I not have agreed to, what would I not have given only to be that lucky fellow at the fountain!…
— from The Torrents of Spring by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

But, as Marshal Jourdan very truly remarks in his Mémoires , ‘Calculating the distance from Aranda to Tarazona via Soria, one easily sees that even if Ney had given no rest to his troops, it would have been impossible for him to arrive before the afternoon of the twenty-fourth, that is to say, twenty-four hours after the battle.
— from A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. 1, 1807-1809 From the Treaty of Fontainbleau to the Battle of Corunna by Charles Oman

The story of the cruelties inflicted on Regulus is now, however, generally disbelieved.
— from The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus During the Reigns of the Emperors Constantius, Julian, Jovianus, Valentinian, and Valens by Ammianus Marcellinus

Few people can resist doing what is universally expected of them Freedom to excel in nothing Had gained everything he wanted in life except happiness Indefeasible right of the public to have news Intellectual poverty Known something if I hadn't been kept at school Longing is one thing and reason another Making himself instead of in making money Mediocrity of the amazing art product Never go fishing without both fly and bait Nothing like it certainly had happened to anybody Object was to win a case rather than to do justice in a case Public that gets tired of anything in about three days Remaining enjoyment is the indulgence of frank speech Sell your manuscripts, but don't sell your soul Success is often a misfortune Summer days that come but to go There isn't much to feel here except what you see Things that are self-evident nobody seems to see Vanity at the bottom of even a reasonable ambition We confound events with causes What is society for?
— from Quotations from the Project Gutenberg Editions of the Works of Charles Dudley Warner by Charles Dudley Warner