It was not until the approach of evening that we resolved to enter a Mexican township, because it contained a temple and a large building, in which we could fortify ourselves.
— 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

He wrote that he was old, and no use to anyone and that nobody loved him, and he begged his daughters to forget him, and when he died to bury him in a plain, deal coffin without ceremony, or to send his body to Harkov to the dissecting theatre.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

So that of the three kingdoms then famous, one, namely Sicyon, was not under the Assyrians, because it was in Europe; but as for Egypt, how could it fail to be subject to the empire which ruled all Asia with the single exception of India?
— from The City of God, Volume II by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

Let us suppose, however, that the whole was on account of Great Britain, and that it amounted to a still greater sum than Mr Barretti seems to imagine; this trade would not, upon that account, be more advantageous than any other, in which, for the same value sent out, we received an equal value of consumable goods in return.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

But they do not use to accompany with their wives when they are with child, as a demonstration that they do not many out of regard to pleasure, but for the sake of posterity.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus

There's nothing useless to a man of sense.
— from Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Jean de La Fontaine

And then, in looking backwards over the course of our lives, we discover that there is one thing that cannot be restored to us: the wasted period of our youth, when our teachers did not utilise these ardent and eager years to lead us to the knowledge of things, but merely to this so-called “classical education” !
— from The Dawn of Day by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Yes, he had built a school out of the old bricks at the works for some eight hundred roubles, and they sang the prayer for “long life” to him when the building was opened, but there was no chance of his giving up his shares, and it certainly never entered his head that the peasants were human beings like himself, and that they, too, needed university teaching, and not merely lessons in these wretched schools.
— from The Duel and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

But there's no use talking about it....
— from The Rosie World by Parker Fillmore

She paused a moment aghast at the sight of the struggling gander, still enveloped in Ted's coat, and then, with extended hands and wildly-flapping drapery, hastened towards him—her aspect being not unlike that assumed by the unfortunate biped in question when he had first advanced to the attack.
— from North, South and Over the Sea by M. E. Francis

A brass elbow, which may be purchased for a few pence, should be driven into the waste hole, and a small shield be nailed under the air hole.
— from Things To Make by Archibald Williams

duty upon imports and exports: see Boeckh, Public Econ. of Athens, and his Notes upon the above-mentioned Inscription.
— from History of Greece, Volume 06 (of 12) by George Grote

I am not unwilling, though at the same time ashamed to own, that the vices of my youth proceeded much more from my silly resolution of being, what I heard called a man of pleasure, than from my own inclinations.
— from Letters to His Son, 1746-47 On the Fine Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman by Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of

IT It was not until the afternoon of the second day in Vermont that Virginia wrote her father.
— from The Girl from the Big Horn Country by Mary Ellen Chase

“Near us there are so few young people.”
— from The Grim House by Mrs. Molesworth

“There is no use talking about the matter,” said Charley, “let us go to sleep and be prepared for whatever may occur.
— from The Two Supercargoes; Or, Adventures in Savage Africa by William Henry Giles Kingston

We do not understand this attack on the national hero of poetry in all its strength, if we do not imagine, as later on also with Plato, the root of this attack to be the ardent desire to step into the place of the overthrown poet and to inherit his fame.
— from Early Greek Philosophy & Other Essays Collected Works, Volume Two by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche