Sir W. Coventry told me, it is much to be pitied that the King should lose the service of a man so able and faithfull; and that he ought to be brought over, but that it is always observed, that by bringing over one discontented man, you raise up three in his room; which is a State lesson I never knew before.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

A week later Iki no Kami circulated another paper to be substituted for the first, in which he had vented a little too much abuse of the anti-Tycoon party.
— from A Diplomat in Japan The inner history of the critical years in the evolution of Japan when the ports were opened and the monarchy restored, recorded by a diplomatist who took an active part in the events of the time, with an account of his personal experiences during that period by Ernest Mason Satow

We could live cheaply by the daily work of my hands, and could save every farthing we possessed to forward the purpose, the righteous purpose, of redressing an infamous wrong—which, from first to last, I now kept steadily in view.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

The other letter is not known, and all three soon fell into disuse.]
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

[Bailey]; "the great end of life is not knowledge but action"
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget

Whether the name of Frati Godenti which they here bear was one of reproach or was simply descriptive of the easy rule under which they lived, is not known.
— from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri

There is no question of squandering one’s means and giving money right and left; I never knew money win love.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

But Light is never known to follow crooked Passages nor to bend into the Shadow.
— from Opticks Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, and Colours of Light by Isaac Newton

"Well, well, so much the better," cried my uncle, at last, "I now know what we are about.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

yes, only—' and then added hurriedly, as though drawn on in spite of herself by the grave sympathy of his look, 'I never knew anybody so good who thought himself of so little account.
— from Essays from 'The Guardian' by Walter Pater

After that we got into the carriage again and returned home without stopping anywhere— Lepas itu naik kreta pula pulang ka rumah t’ada singgah di-mana-mana.
— from A Manual of the Malay language With an Introductory Sketch of the Sanskrit Element in Malay by Maxwell, William Edward, Sir

The cause of quarrel between the two young lawyers is not known, but the "offence," whatever it was, was not slight.
— from Notes and Queries, Number 66, February 1, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by Various

[324:B] Colonel William Clayborne, Jr., eldest son of the above mentioned, was probably the one appointed (1676) to command a fort at Indiantown Landing, in New Kent, together with Major Lyddal, [324:C] as the father was probably then too old for that post.
— from History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia by Charles Campbell

If I nowadays acknowledge the existence of an unseen power, if I feel a need of believing in another, better, and more just life, I nevertheless know right well that there are men remaining in this world of ours; and at times, even when they wear the cowl or the cassock, the work they do is vile.”
— from The Three Cities Trilogy: Lourdes, Complete by Émile Zola

Then, as the old manager took up and turned over the letters indicated, not knowing what to say, and feeling his statements to Mrs Waynflete considerably invalidated by the young gentleman’s look and manner, Guy deliberately unlocked the cupboard, took out the brandy-bottle, and held it up to the light.
— from Waynflete by Christabel R. (Christabel Rose) Coleridge

She was evidently accustomed to talk, and even to listen, if not kept waiting too long for details and parentheses; she was not continuous, but frequent, as it were, and you could see that she hated explanations, though it was not to be supposed that she had anything to fear from them.
— from The Bostonians, Vol. I (of II) by Henry James

Worser luck I never knew.—Well, you need not make it worserer.
— from The Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 04 by of Samosata Lucian