If I can't pay, why, I can owe, / And death makes equal the high and low.
— 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.

——A great MORAL might be picked handsomely out of this, but I have not time—’tis enough to say, wherever the demolition began, ’twas equally fatal to the sash window. 71 C H A P. XX T HE corporal had not taken his measures so badly in this stroke of artilleryship, but that he might have kept the matter entirely to himself, and left Susannah to have sustained the whole weight of the attack, as she could;—true courage is not content with coming off so.——The corporal, whether as general or comptroller of the train,—’twas no matter,——had done that, without which, as he imagined, the misfortune could never have happened,— at least in Susannah ’s hands; ——How would your honours have behaved?——He determined at once, not to take shelter behind Susannah, —but to give it; and with this resolution upon his mind, he marched upright into the parlour, to lay the whole manœuvre before my uncle Toby.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

The corporal had not taken his measures so badly in this stroke of artilleryship, but that he might have kept the matter entirely to himself, and left Susannah to have sustained the whole weight of the attack, as she could;—true courage is not content with coming off so.—The corporal, whether as general or comptroller of the train,—'twas no matter,—had done that, without which, as he imagined, the misfortune could never have happened,—at least in Susannah's hands;—How would your honours have behaved?—He determined at once, not to take shelter behind Susannah,—but to give it; and with this resolution upon his mind, he marched upright into the parlour, to lay the whole manoeuvre before my uncle Toby.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

Born of hearts desire: Amber woodland streaming; Topaz islands dreaming; Sunset-cities gleaming, Spire on burning spire; Ruddy-windowed taverns; Sunshine-spilling wines; Crystal-lighted caverns Of Golconda's mines; Summers, unreturning; Passion's crater yearning; Troy, the ever-burning; Shelley's lustral pyre; Dragon-eyes, unsleeping; Witches' cauldrons leaping; Golden galleys sweeping Out from sea-walled Tyre: Fancies, fugitive and fair, Flashed with singing through the air; Till, dazzled by the drowsy glare, I shut my eyes to heat and light; And saw, in sudden night, Crouched in the dripping dark, With steaming shoulders stark, The man who hews the coal to feed my fire.
— from Fires - Book 1: The Stone, and Other Tales by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

As the men entered the hut and looked at the ragged holes in the roof and the bodies of nine wolves stretched on the ground, they saw that they had, indeed, arrived only just in time.
— from Beric the Briton : a Story of the Roman Invasion by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

She was not very sanguine about recovering her, since it was much easier to hide a little girl than to find her among such a wilderness of houses as the great city contains.
— from Rough and Ready; Or, Life Among the New York Newsboys by Alger, Horatio, Jr.

"You are very silent, Vin," his fair neighbour said, turning her merry eyes towards him at last.
— from Stand Fast, Craig-Royston! (Volume II) by William Black

She wore a tiara far more elaborate than his, and, like him, exhibited the diadem.
— from The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 6: Parthia The History, Geography, And Antiquities Of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Parthia, And Sassanian or New Persian Empire; With Maps and Illustrations. by George Rawlinson

I had been desirous to wait, suspended, till this fuller knowledge might be brought about; but I was now solicited into a decision, by M. Argant, who was immediately going to her, and who must either take her a letter from me or show her, by taking none, that I was bent upon refusing her request.
— from The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay — Volume 1 by Fanny Burney

Therefore that these results may be reached and a satisfactory article put on the market there must be money enough to house a large plant, pay skilled and high-priced workmen, supply the best of material, and tempt into the industry men of brains.
— from Christopher and the Clockmakers by Sara Ware Bassett

suffer'd its nose to be held to the Grindstone, till it was almost ground to the grisles; and yet grew never the sharper for ought I could discerne; What was, before the world was made, I leave to better Antiquaries then myselfe; but I thinke, since the world began, it was never storied that Salus Populi began with Majestas Imperii , unlesse Majestas Imperii first unharbour'd it, and hunted it to a stand, and then it must either turne head and live, or turn taile and die: but more have been storyed on the other hand than Majestas Imperii is willing to heare: I doubt not but Majestas Imperii knows, that Common-wealths cost as much the making as Crownes; and if they bee well made, would yet outsell an ill-fashioned Crown, in any Market overt, even in Smithfield , if they could be well vouched.
— from The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America by Nathaniel Ward

There always are difficulties when influential people have to be dealt with; and it is much easier to hit a little man than a big one—but the profit is less.
— from The Criminal & the Community by James Devon