None ever was a great poet that applied himself much to anything else.
— 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.

This sally, purely logical, and this use of propositions divided and conjoined, and the right enumeration of parts, is it not every whit as good that the dog knows all this of himself as well as from Trapezuntius?
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

And thus we are driven to believe that the holy angels never existed without a good will or the love of God.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

The prince’s name evidently was a great surprise to her.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

THE EIGHTH STORY Day the Fourth GIROLAMO LOVETH SALVESTRA AND BEING CONSTRAINED BY HIS MOTHER'S PRAYERS TO GO TO PARIS, RETURNETH AND FINDETH HIS MISTRESS MARRIED; WHEREUPON HE ENTERETH HER HOUSE BY STEALTH AND DIETH BY HER SIDE; AND HE BEING CARRIED TO A CHURCH, SALVESTRA DIETH BESIDE HIM Emilia's story come to an end, Neifile, by the king's commandment, began thus: "There are some, noble ladies, who believe themselves to know more than other folk, albeit, to my thinking, they know less, and who, by reason thereof, presume to oppose their judgment not only to the counsels of men, but even to set it up against the very nature of things; of which presumption very grave ills have befallen aforetime, nor ever was any good known to come thereof.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

Montaigne always made Pascal angry, for nobody ever wanted a good pillow so much as he did.
— from The Dawn of Day by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Perhaps actions were not enough with a glass of the kind?
— from The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

It teaches him the various kinds of wild fruit, roots, nuts, etc., which are good for food, or are the favorite food of animals.
— from Boy Scouts Handbook The First Edition, 1911 by Boy Scouts of America

From hence it should seem to follow, that the former kind of eggs are first in the oviducts, and, if impregnation be not effected within a given time, that all the worker embryos perish.
— from An Introduction to Entomology: Vol. 2 or Elements of the Natural History of the Insects by William Kirby

He clasped his hands over the back of his neck as the night exploded with a gigantic crash.
— from The Honored Prophet by William E. Bentley

She nodded emphatically with a good-humored combativeness at the visiting woman and at her sister.
— from The Portion of Labor by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

He even exhibited at a very youthful period his fatal facility for falling in love, and naturally enough, with a girl older than himself, named Gretchen.
— from Home Life of Great Authors by Hattie Tyng Griswold

Although the attacking force was very greatly superior, and took the little garrison by surprise—for they did not expect, while a great battle was raging within a distance of a mile, that the Ashantis would be able to spare a force to attack a detached party—the garrison defended itself with great gallantry and complete success, not only beating off the enemy whenever they attacked, but sallying out and assisting to bring in a convoy of stores which was close at hand when the attack began.
— from By Sheer Pluck: A Tale of the Ashanti War by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

It is true that we translated Cornelius Nepos; but none of us, probably not even the master himself, knew who the men were whose lives we were translating, nor their countries, nor the times in which they lived, nor the governments under which they flourished, nor even what a government was.
— from The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 2, May, 1851 by Various

Running in deep beds, of which the banks are usually level with the surrounding country, and the sides terraced from the highest to the lowest water-mark, they constitute natural entrenchments which are generally invisible, except where rarely defined by a line of bushes, and, owing to the dead uniformity of the surrounding country, are almost impossible to reconnoitre.
— 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

Indotát o , not endowed with any gift.
— from Queen Anna's New World of Words; or, Dictionarie of the Italian and English Tongues by John Florio