I am He that drowned and destroyed for ever the mighty enemies that have resisted you.
— from Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal

“After a month of hopeless love and moral degradation, during which he betrayed his betrothed and appropriated money entrusted to his honor, the prisoner was driven almost to frenzy, almost to madness by continual jealousy—and of whom?
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

And Virgil when he felt them round him cast Said: ‘That I may embrace thee, hither tend,’
— from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri

You may either take half an ounce of it by itself, or mix it with half an ounce of Syrup of Violets, and so take a spoonful at a time, still shaking them together when you take them: only take notice of this, if you take it inwardly, let it be new drawn, for it will be sour in three or four days.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

‘Many eyes, that have long since been closed in the grave, have looked round upon that scene lightly enough, when entering the gate of the old Marshalsea Prison for the first time; for despair seldom comes with the first severe shock of misfortune.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

The appearance of the servants looking out for them to give notice of the carriages was a joyful sight; and even the bustle of collecting and preparing to depart, and the solicitude of Mrs. Elton to have her carriage first, were gladly endured, in the prospect of the quiet drive home which was to close the very questionable enjoyments of this day of pleasure.
— from Emma by Jane Austen

That which we went chiefly to see was the young ladies of the schools,—[Hackney was long famous for its boarding schools.]—whereof there is great store, very pretty; and also the organ, which is handsome, and tunes the psalm, and plays with the people; which is mighty pretty, and makes me mighty earnest to have a pair at our church, I having almost a mind to give them a pair, if they would settle a maintenance on them for it.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

The Japanese word which I have roughly rendered Chivalry, is, in the original, more expressive than Horsemanship.
— from Bushido, the Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe

" "Well, upon my soul, Lorrequer," said he, jumping from his chair, and speaking with more energy than he had before evinced, "you are, without exception, the most worldly-minded, cold-blooded fellow I ever met.
— from The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer — Volume 2 by Charles James Lever

The primitive Indo-European language, it is probable, had eight cases of the noun; the oldest known Teutonic dialect reduced them to six; in Anglo-Saxon they fell to four, with a weak and moribund instrumental hanging in the air; in Middle English the dative and accusative began to decay; in Modern English they have disappeared altogether, save as ghosts to haunt grammarians.
— from The American Language A Preliminary Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States by H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken

"The most exciting things have been happening, and I wanted to tell you about them."
— from A Knight on Wheels by Ian Hay

“We'll see about that!” said the tramp, desperately, and he sprang towards Melville, who had in the meantime entered the house and stood only six feet distant.
— from Do and Dare — a Brave Boy's Fight for Fortune by Alger, Horatio, Jr.

Wherefore casting away all other diverse opinions, let us set down this as the truth, that God created "the heavens and the earth," as yet a rude mass, out of nothing; so that the earth, as an unformed chaotic mass, enveloped the heaven as yet also an unformed mass, like a dark, circumfluent, nebulous cloud.
— from Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1: Luther on the Creation by Martin Luther

But although Philip Marsham, it seemed, had taken the Old One's eye and won his heart long before on the little hill beside the road, when Phil had drawn the wind from Martin's sails, and although it had not escaped Tom Jordan that Phil's hand moved easily toward his weapon, the old proverb has it "a man that flattereth his neighbor, spreadeth a net for his steps"; and "he that whistleth merrily, spreadeth his nets cunningly and hunteth after his prey greedily."
— from The Dark Frigate by Charles Boardman Hawes

Some one, perhaps, had done this for this woman, Mrs. Yarrow, long ago; for, let the months before and after be bare as they chose, she kept this day of Christmas with a feverish anxiety, more eager than her children even to make every moment warm and throb with pleasure, and enjoying them herself, to their last breath, with the whole zest of a nervous, strong-blooded nature.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 75, January, 1864 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various

The servant, whose soul is still more enslaved than his body, reasons somewhat as follows, after he has had a beating: "My master has not sent me away, but beaten me; therefore he loves me, and I ought to be attached to him."
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 25: Russia and Poland by Giacomo Casanova

Most Englishmen, therefore, have no feeling of disloyalty to the democratic idea in admitting that it is not safe to allow the efficiency of officials to depend upon the personal character of individual representatives.
— from Human Nature in Politics Third Edition by Graham Wallas

Alvar paused and put his hand across his eyes, with more emotion than he often showed.
— from An English Squire by Christabel R. (Christabel Rose) Coleridge