The great duty of life is not to give pain; and the most acute reasoner cannot find an excuse for one who voluntarily wounds the heart of a fellow-creature.
— 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.

I’m perfectly willing to state, in a court of law, if necessary, that I love good food.”
— from Bliss, and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

It is not enough to say to the citizens, be good ; they must be taught to be so; and even example, which is in this respect the first lesson, is not the sole means to be employed; patriotism is the most efficacious: for, as I have said already, every man is virtuous when his particular will is in all things conformable to the general will, and we voluntarily will what is willed by those whom we love.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The preceding notes may furnish a few stray glimpses into that life, and into those lurid interiors, never to be fully convey'd to the future.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

At last I noticed that these attacks were met by witty and forcible little snubs, and also that encouraging comments appeared in my favour, which for some time surprised me very much, as I knew that only enemies and never friends interested themselves in such cases.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

Hear me Sir Peter—I came hither on no matter relating to your ward and even ignorant of this Gentleman's pretensions to her—but I came—seduced by his insidious arguments—and pretended Passion[—]at least to listen to his dishonourable Love if not to sacrifice your Honour to his Baseness.
— from The School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Hector tore his way through and flung himself into the thick of the fight, and his presence threw the Danaans into confusion, for his spear was not long idle; nevertheless though he went among the ranks with sword and spear, and throwing great stones, he avoided Ajax son of Telamon, for Jove would have been angry with him if he had fought a better man than himself.
— from The Iliad by Homer

Besides, our nearness to the King in love Is near the hate of those love not the King.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

This is definitely not the hour when men take kindly to an exhortation to listen , for listening is not today a part of popular religion.
— from The Pursuit of God by A. W. (Aiden Wilson) Tozer

He was required as the price of his reconciliation to give up Lord Digby, the Earls of Nithsdale and Carnwath, Sir Marmaduke Langdale, Sir William Huddleston, and other royalists who had found refuge in the Isle of Man when the King's cause in England was entirely lost, "otherwise your Lordship is not to expect from us any further invitation."
— from The Great Civil War in Lancashire (1642-1651) by Ernest Broxap

At the equator, where the latitude is nil , the Pole Star will be on the horizon due north.
— from Astronomy of To-day: A Popular Introduction in Non-Technical Language by Cecil Goodrich Julius Dolmage

“Dear cousin,” Viola cried quickly, “be assured of this; Señor de Ladron is nothing to me: not a particle of the affection, I blush now to have entertained for him, remains.
— from Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXVII, No. 6, December 1850 by Various

Nature is new, life is new, the Bible is new, the future world is new.
— from Orthodoxy: Its Truths And Errors by James Freeman Clarke

Nothing checks his majesty's signature; and M. de Lyonne is not there to tell me he has signed."
— from The Vicomte de Bragelonne Or Ten Years Later being the completion of "The Three Musketeers" And "Twenty Years After" by Alexandre Dumas

“The name of Latham is nothing to you, Eunice,” she protested.
— from The Automobile Girls in the Berkshires; Or, The Ghost of Lost Man's Trail by Laura Dent Crane

We admit the value of these arguments to their fullest extent; nay, we will go so far as to express our belief that experiments, conducted by a skilful physiologist, would very probably obtain the desired production of mutually more or less infertile breeds from a common stock, in a comparatively few years; but still, as the case stands at present, this "little rift within the lute" is not to be disguised nor overlooked.
— from Darwiniana : Essays — Volume 02 by Thomas Henry Huxley

"The first standard, Guidon, or color of regiments of the line, is not to be carried by any guard but that of the King, Queen, Prince of Wales, Commander-in-chief, or Admiral of the Fleet, being of the royal family; and, except in those cases, it is always to remain with the regiment."
— from History of the National Flag of the United States of America by Schuyler Hamilton