“There is nothing,” says Cicero, “so charming as the employment of letters; of letters, I say, by means whereof the infinity of things, the immense grandeur of nature, the heavens even in this world, the earth, and the seas are discovered to us; ‘tis they that have taught us religion, moderation, and the grandeur of courage, and that have rescued our souls from darkness, to make her see all things, high, low, first, last, and middling; ‘tis they that furnish us wherewith to live happily and well, and conduct us to pass over our lives without displeasure, and without offence.”
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Thirdly, the original serous tube, 13, Fig. 8, may persist, and after having received the hernial sac, 11, the bowel may have been reduced, leaving its sac behind it in the inguinal canal; the neck of this sac may have been obliterated by the pressure of a truss, a second hernia may protrude at the point 1, and this may be received into the first hernial sac in the same manner as the first was received into the original serous infantile tube.
— from Surgical Anatomy by Joseph Maclise

The next day I went to M. Dalacqua, and, after my lesson, I saw Barbara who, passing from one room to another, dropped a paper and earnestly looked at me.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Happy, if she be thence sensible of her temerity, when she pries into these sublime mysteries; and leaving a scene so full of obscurities and perplexities, return, with suitable modesty, to her true and proper province, the examination of common life; where she will find difficulties enough to employ her enquiries, without launching into so boundless an ocean of doubt, uncertainty, and contradiction!
— from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume

But it looks, I suppose, better than it smells——crack, crack——crack, crack——what a fuss thou makest!—as if it concerned the good people to be informed, that a man with pale face and clad in black, had the honour to be driven into Paris at nine o’clock at night, by a postillion in a tawny yellow jerkin, turned up with red calamanco—crack, 280 crack——crack, crack——crack, crack,——I wish thy whip—— ——But ’tis the spirit of thy nation; so crack—crack on.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

This parish church of St. George in Buttolph lane is small, but the monuments for two hundred years past are well preserved from spoil, whereof one is of Adam Bamme, mayor 1397; Richard Bamme, esquire, his son, of Gillingham in Kent, 1452; John Walton, gentleman, 1401; Marpor, a gentleman, 1400; John St. John, merchant of Levant, and Agnes his wife, 1400; Hugh Spencer, esquire, 1424; William Combes, stock fishmonger, one of the sheriffs 1452, who gave forty pounds towards the works of that church; John Stokar, draper, one of the sheriffs, 1477; Richard Dryland, esquire, and Katherine his wife, daughter of Morrice Brune, knight, of Southuckenton in Essex, steward of household to Humfrey Duke of Glocester, 1487; Nicholas Patrich, one of the sheriffs, 1519.
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

I staggered on, my head reeling and my heart beating against my ribs, tired almost to death, and yet not daring to lose sight of the chase lest I should be left alone with this horrible companion.
— from The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

O my dread lord, I should be guiltier than my guiltiness, To think I can be undiscernible, When I perceive your Grace, like pow'r divine, Hath look'd upon my passes.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

Shortly after passing one of these chapels we came suddenly upon a village which started up out of the mist; and I was alarmed lest I should be made an object of curiosity or dislike.
— from Erewhon; Or, Over the Range by Samuel Butler

The loss is severe; but they were the two oldest ponies of our team and the two which Oates thought of least use.
— from Scott's Last Expedition Volume I Being the journals of Captain R. F. Scott by Robert Falcon Scott

His language is so barren of imagery, that his characters seem altogether devoid of fancy; it is broken and harsh: he wished to steel it anew, and in the process it not only lost its splendour, but became brittle and inflexible.
— from Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature by August Wilhelm von Schlegel

The longest life is short; but what can be done by a man who never wastes a moment of his time is something prodigious.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 21, April, 1875, to September, 1875 A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science by Various

It all began that dreadful night Of Parker's death, the strain and fright, The letter it seemed best to write— From then to now I have been frail.
— from Starved Rock by Edgar Lee Masters

No part of the lands in Scotland being now in the hands of the crown, the extent of holdings by crown charter cannot be increased; and, as the rents of the crown vassals were valued a considerable time ago, an increase of rent, either from the improvement of the estate, or from any other cause, does not increase its political value.
— from The Modern Athens A dissection and demonstration of men and things in the Scotch Capital. by Robert Mudie

But he could not, without inquiring, obtain the desired information, and this he hardly liked to do, lest it should be reported to Rough and Ready, and so put him on his guard.
— from Rough and Ready; Or, Life Among the New York Newsboys by Alger, Horatio, Jr.

I told him such various characters must have produced incidents extremely entertaining; and if he remembered all, as I supposed he did, and had leisure, I should be obliged to him for the recital.
— from A Journey from This World to the Next by Henry Fielding

This suggestion that a large increase should be made in the forces raised locally was not a new one.
— from History of the War in South Africa 1899-1902 v. 1 (of 4) Compiled by Direction of His Majesty's Government by Great Britain. War Office

Now for the first time he had an abode of his own, a lodging in St. Bride's, Fleet Street, and soon afterwards a house in Aldersgate Street where he settled with a young nephew whom he undertook to educate.
— from Milton by John Cann Bailey