I had,—but man is but a patched fool, if he will offer to say what methought I had.
— from A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

The mortality is by no means so great amongst the negroes who are still slaves.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville

In like manner, it being certain, that there is a moral obligation to submit to government, because every one thinks so; it must be as certain, that this obligation arises not from a promise; since no one, whose judgment has not been led astray by too strict adherence to a system of philosophy, has ever yet dreamt of ascribing it to that origin.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

She has also been seen in the Black Mountain in Breconshire.
— from British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes

GREASING a man is bribing; SOAPING is flattering him.
— from A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James. by John Camden Hotten

I was also much impressed by these works; the musical genre-pictures woven into the first-named symphony were particularly pleasing, while Harald delighted me in almost every respect..
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

he says to himself with a sigh, "there are madmen in Bedlam less mad than I." "You make me quite impatient," said a friend of mine, to whom I read out this remark: "you are continually opposing the passionate man to the Don Juan, and that is not the point in dispute.
— from On Love by Stendhal

In Don Mathias' and Lodovico's deaths: If so, 'tis time that it be seen into; For she that varies from me in belief, Gives great presumption that she loves me not, Or, loving, doth dislike of something done.
— from The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe

he is no longer a brother of mine——” “Indeed but he is,” said Allworthy, “and a brother of mine too.”
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

Wait till I get the money.” “But I’ll hold the stakes,” said the other, not confiding much in Bruno’s looks.
— from The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal

As man is by nature bound to love God with all his soul, he cannot be entitled to any reward for anything beyond his duty.
— from Works of John Bunyan — Volume 01 by John Bunyan

This ocean stream, never less than forty miles in breadth, is distinguished by a deep indigo colour.
— from Phrases and Names, Their Origins and Meanings by Trench H. Johnson

She had been, it seemed, in the same hospital with Mademoiselle in Belgium.
— from Ethel Morton and the Christmas Ship by Mabell S. C. (Mabell Shippie Clarke) Smith

The females on the main island believe that we humans are responsible for the continuation of their breed.
— from The Lani People by Jesse F. (Jesse Franklin) Bone

[Pg 29] with fruit colouring and moulding into balls the size of a hickory nut.
— from Gala-Day Luncheons: A Little Book of Suggestions by Caroline French Benton

In 1680, Governor Simon Bradstreet, in answer to inquiries from "the lords of his Majesties privy council," thus writes:— "There had been no company of blacks or slaves brought into the country since the beginning of this plantation, for the space of 50 years, only one small vessell about two yeares since after 20 month's voyage to Madagasca brought hither betwixt 40 and 50 negros, most women and children, sold for 10 pounds, 15 pounds and 20 pounds apiece, which stood the merchants in near 40 pounds apiece one with another: now and then two or three negros are brought hither from Barbados and other of his majesties plantations, and sold her for about 20 pounds apiece, so that there may bee within our government about 100 or 120, and it may bee as many Scots brought hither and sold for servants in the time of the war with Scotland, and most now married and living here, and about halfe so many Irish brought hither at several times as servants."
— from An Account of Some of the Principal Slave Insurrections, and Others, Which Have Occurred, or Been Attempted, in the United States and Elsewhere, During the Last Two Centuries. by Joshua Coffin

Lloyd, `Thirty-three years in Tasmania and Victoria,' p. 9: "Every man in business . . . issued promissory notes, varying in value from the sum of fourpence to twenty shillings, payable on demand.
— from Austral English A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia by Edward Ellis Morris

Moreover, it is a demonstrable impossibility to explain the origin of just those organs and members in the structure of organisms which are systematically the most significant and functionally the most important, by means of natural selection.
— from The Theories of Darwin and Their Relation to Philosophy, Religion, and Morality by Rudolf Schmid