Death was before their eyes, and everybody began to think of their graves, not of mirth and diversions.
— from A Journal of the Plague Year Written by a Citizen Who Continued All the While in London by Daniel Defoe

And how this dreadful sort of thing, this hiving together in one foul nest of mother and daughters, and the making a young daughter superior to her own mother in rank and authority, are things which Mormon women submit to because their religion teaches them that the more wives a man has on earth, and the more children he rears, the higher the place they will all have in the world to come—and the warmer, maybe, though they do not seem to say anything about that.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain

The news of my approaching departure saddened the supper-table.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

“None of mark and distinction that I can behold from this station,” said Rebecca; “but, doubtless, the other side of the castle is also assailed.
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott

I swear to you, by the earth which I inhabit, and by you that made me, that, with the companion you bestow, I will quit the neighbourhood of man, and dwell, as it may chance, in the most savage of places.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Narvaez ordered meat and drink to be set before them, and as their glasses were abundantly filled, they said to one another in his presence: "This is indeed leading a different sort of life with a glass of good wine in one's hand, when compared to the slavery under Cortes, who allows a person no rest either night or day; where a person dares scarcely say a word, and death is always staring him in the face."
— from The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 1 (of 2) Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain. by Bernal Díaz del Castillo

And he might have added another remarkable saying of the same author: TO THE PURE, ALL THINGS ARE PURE; not only meats and drinks, but all kind of knowledge whether of good or evil; the knowledge cannot defile, nor consequently the books, if the will and conscience be not defiled.
— from Areopagitica A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England by John Milton

The second of the two was that they were not far from expecting that they themselves, also, might yet suffer some terrible injury, so unholy were both his words and his actions: therefore many, cut to the heart with grief at the thought of reality and possibility, wished that they themselves belonged to the number of men already dead outside, and so might secure a respite at last from fear.
— from Dio's Rome, Volume 1 (of 6) An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek during the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English Form by Cassius Dio Cocceianus

The notion of morality and duty must, therefore, have preceded any regard to this satisfaction, and cannot be derived from it.
— from The Critique of Practical Reason by Immanuel Kant

The testimony of such writers as have noticed the house-life of the Indian tribes is not uniform in respect to the number of meals a day.
— from Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines by Lewis Henry Morgan

[Pg 95] Carved by the winter fire in nights of gloomy November, And through many a long, long night of many a dark December.
— from The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 by Thomas De Quincey

A large quantity of powder which was being paid out to the soldiers suddenly exploded killing a large number of men and depriving the rest of means for continuing the fight.
— from The History of Korea (vol. 2 of 2) by Homer B. (Homer Bezaleel) Hulbert

If Perkins had not been born several degrees north of Mason and Dixon's line he would have known better than that; as it was, he did not understand these negroes.
— from McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXXI, No. 3, July 1908. by Various

“Not on my account, dearest sister,” I cried aloud; “here are Rupert and I, God be praised, both in good health, and safe.”
— from Afloat and Ashore: A Sea Tale by James Fenimore Cooper

Between the two sciences there is no other difference than this: while moral philosophy treats only of essential rights and duties, that is to say, of those which result from the very nature of man, and depend on the necessary will of the Creator, jurisprudence has for its more particular object those rights which are derived immediately from the civil authority, and which have been established by a positive law.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 15, Nos. 85-90, April 1872-September 1872 A Monthly Magazine by Various

This may be regarded as a fair expression of the sentiments of a great majority of the people north of Mason and Dixon’s line.
— from The Impending Crisis of the South How to Meet It by Hinton Rowan Helper

During the week that followed he had ample time to think it all over, the result of his cogitations being that there was no need of making a decisive move at present.
— from Jennie Gerhardt: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser