I have never known anything of trouble, and have had little to do in anything but the management of my own affairs: or, if I have, it has been upon condition to do it at my own leisure and after my own method; committed to my trust by such as had a confidence in me, who did not importune me, and who knew my humour; for good horsemen will make shift to get service out of a rusty and broken-winded jade.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

He would feel the discomfort of bodily needs without knowing what was the matter and without knowing how to provide for these needs.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“Perhaps, as you have not mentioned your destination, you may as well keep silent upon it till you are clear off.
— from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

The lodgers had disappeared very quickly—Ferdishenko soon after the events at Nastasia Philipovna’s, while the prince went to Moscow, as we know.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Colonel Forster is a sensible man, and will keep her out of any real mischief; and she is luckily too poor to be an object of prey to any body.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

By what I seek, but others to make such As I, though thereby worse to me redound: For only in destroying I find ease To my relentless thoughts; and, him destroyed, Or won to what may work his utter loss, For whom all this was made, all this will soon Follow, as to him linked in weal or woe; In woe then; that destruction wide may range: To me shall be the glory sole among The infernal Powers, in one day to have marred What he, Almighty styled, six nights and days Continued making; and who knows how long Before had been contriving?
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton

That there is such a plan has been the belief of many deep delvers in the hidden things of the world, and that such a plan has at times had its dress rehearsals, so to speak, on a limited stage, as if in preparation for its grand finale on the universal stage, is another belief held by men at whose knowledge it is impossible to cavil.
— from The International Jew : The World's Foremost Problem by Anonymous

If you keep sufficient credit to ward off all these disagreeables, you might as well keep your money, for it will cost you no more to keep it.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

She has starry grey eyes, two dimples, and a mouth I must and will kiss—there—there—there!
— from Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1904 by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

"Another minute, and who knows whether you would have found me alive?
— from The Passport by Richard Bagot

Isaiah did not write the cadences of his prophecies, as we ordinary men of this country know them: Christ did not speak the cadences of the Parables or of the Sermon on the Mount, as we know them.
— from On The Art of Reading by Arthur Quiller-Couch

“May a woman know?”
— from The Ordeal of Richard Feverel — Complete by George Meredith

[Pg 13] Or a comer-by be seen Swinging in a palanquin;— Where among the desert sands Some deserted city stands, All its children, sweep and prince, Grown to manhood ages since, Not a foot in street or house, Not a stir of child or mouse, And when kindly falls the night, In all the town no spark of light.
— from A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson

‘You may as well know it at once,’ replied Herbert, mastering his feelings.
— from Tippoo Sultaun: A tale of the Mysore war by Meadows Taylor

If this was what the theatre was coming to, then let all decent men and women keep out of such places!
— from The Angel by Guy Thorne

Squish, splash, wash, came down a perfect torrent of water through the machicolations, as what Kenneth called “the boiling lead” was brought to bear through the openings left by the old architect for the defence of the gate.
— from Three Boys; Or, The Chiefs of the Clan Mackhai by George Manville Fenn

"Now I just mean to tell you something nice, for you might as well know it and be happy a day longer: mother and you and I are going to Indianapolis to-morrow with Dotty—going in the cars."
— from Dotty Dimple at Play by Sophie May