I add that—while England is among the greatest of lands in political freedom, or the idea of it, and in stalwart personal character, &c.—the spirit of English literature is not great, at least is not greatest—and its products are no models for us.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

Quod Pandarus, `For ought I can espyen, 1135 This light, nor I ne serven here of nought; Light is not good for syke folkes yen.
— from Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer

{29} It is to the development, identification, and general prevalence of that fervid comradeship, (the adhesive love, at least rivaling the amative love hitherto possessing imaginative literature, if not going beyond it,) that I look for the counterbalance and offset of our materialistic and vulgar American democracy, and for the spiritualization thereof.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

Lavishness is not generosity.
— 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.

Let not the sun go down upon your wrath , i.e. , let it set with the sun, or, as Ruskin suggests, let it never go down so long as the wrong is there.
— 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.

Then went he to get store of moss; and when he was a little way off, he cried out in speaking to the fox thus, Wipe well still, gossip, wipe, and let it never grieve thee to wipe well, my little gossip; I will put thee into service to be wiper to Don Pedro de Castile; wipe, only wipe, and no more.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

I never once gave her an angry look ... I never gave her any cause.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Their half-divine masters lie in no gilded shrines nor under monumental bronze, but buried beneath the elements, their graves marked only by mounds or trees, as it might have been with their earliest ancestors, the peaceful chieftains of a primitive family: a simplicity recalled to-day by the little fragment of dried fish that accompanies presents, in memory of the original humility of the fishing tribes, the ancestors of this almost over-cultivated race.
— from An Artist's Letters from Japan by John La Farge

A moment later Sapt looked in, nodded, grinned, and introduced an extremely smart and deferential young gentleman, who came up to my bedside, bowing again and again, and informed me that he was of the household of the Princess Flavia, and that her Royal Highness had sent him especially to enquire how the King’s health was after the fatigues which his Majesty had undergone yesterday.
— from The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope

No, the Lord is not going to strike down your good works at all.
— from The Story of Cole Younger, by Himself by Cole Younger

“He won’t feel your knife, poor fellow,” said the captain; “and a finger more or less is no great matter to him now: off with it.”
— from Frank Mildmay; Or, the Naval Officer by Frederick Marryat

I suppose the truth is, if only my supercilious critics could be trusted to tell the whole truth, that Lily is not good-looking enough for them.
— from Mushrooms on the Moor by Frank Boreham

My family live in New Guinea; we speak English when we get among English people, Spanish when we get among Spanish people, and French when we get among French people.
— from Birds Illustrated by Color Photography, Vol. 3, No. 1 [January, 1898] A Monthly Serial designed to Promote Knowledge of Bird-Life by Various

When my grandmother was with the Murpheys they would make her get up, and begin [Pg 93] burning logs in new grounds before daybreak.
— from Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves, North Carolina Narratives, Part 1 by United States. Work Projects Administration

119-131 CHAPTER XII Return of Bassompierre to the French Court—Frenzied passion of Henri IV for the young Princesse de Condé—His extravagant conduct—Condé flies with his wife to Flanders—Grief and indignation of the King, who summons his most trusted counsellors to deliberate upon the affair—Sage advice of Sully, which, however, is not followed—The Archduke Albert refuses to surrender the fugitives—Condé retires to Milan and places himself under the protection of Spain—Failure of an attempt to abduct the princess—Henri IV and his Ministers threaten war if the lady is not given up—The “Great Design”—Bassompierre appointed Colonel of the Light Cavalry and a Counsellor of State—His account of the last days and assassination of Henri IV {xi} pp.
— from A Gallant of Lorraine; vol. 1 of 2 François, Seigneur de Bassompierre, Marquis d'Haronel, Maréchal de France, 1579-1646 by H. Noel (Hugh Noel) Williams

than a quarter of an hour, six horses lay ripped open on the ground; the chulos only shook their coloured capes at a very long distance off, without losing sight of the barrier, over which they leaped immediately Napoleon gave signs of approaching.
— from Wanderings in Spain by Théophile Gautier