There might have been a quadrupedal civilization, in which a city gentleman put on four boots to go to the city every morning.
— from What's Wrong with the World by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

” H2 anchor CHAPTER III Bettina Is Supposed to Go Mad—Father Mancia—The Small-pox— I Leave Padua Bettina must have been in despair, not knowing into whose hands her letter had fallen; to return it to her and thus to allay her anxiety, was therefore a great proof of friendship; but my generosity, at the same time that it freed her from a keen sorrow, must have caused her another quite as dreadful, for she knew that I was master of her secret.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Villette is one blaze, one broad illumination; the whole world seems abroad; moonlight and heaven are banished: the town, by her own flambeaux, beholds her own splendour—gay dresses, grand equipages, fine horses and gallant riders throng the bright streets.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

Charity, self-sacrifice, mercy, honesty, integrity, courage, prudence, assiduity, and however else anything that is good and brave may be called, are always of use to the other fellow but barely and only indirectly the possessor of the virtues.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross

My orders for battle were all prepared in advance of Sherman's arrival, except the dates, which could not be fixed while troops to be engaged were so far away.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant

Both these extremes are to be avoided; which will be done if the league of Christians, penned by our Saviour himself, were in the two cross clauses thereof soundly and plainly expounded: “He that is not with us is against us;” 76 and again, “He that is not against us, is with us;” that is, if the points fundamental, and of substance in religion, 69 were truly discerned and distinguished from points not merely of faith, but of opinion, order, or good intention.
— from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon

If we fail—if we fail—not only do we defraud our children of the inheritance which we received from our fathers, but we blast the hopes of the friends of liberty throughout our continent, throughout Europe, throughout the world, to the end of time.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by J. Berg (Joseph Berg) Esenwein

Thus many suitors had perished, for the maiden was unequalled for swiftness of foot, but at last a beautiful youth, named Hippomenes, who had vainly endeavoured to win her love by his assiduous attentions in the chase, ventured to enter the fatal lists.
— from Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E. M. Berens

It was barely two days since the last cavalcade of that nature, that of the Flemish ambassadors charged with concluding the marriage between the dauphin and Marguerite of Flanders, had made its entry into Paris, to the great annoyance of M. le Cardinal de Bourbon, who, for the sake of pleasing the king, had been obliged to assume an amiable mien towards this whole rustic rabble of Flemish burgomasters, and to regale them at his Hôtel de Bourbon, with a very “pretty morality, allegorical satire, and farce,” while a driving rain drenched the magnificent tapestries at his door.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

Assuming that she ought never to have allowed this thing to happen (“Oh, fie!”) because she bore another man’s name (not being permitted to retain her own), ought she to throw this man over, on second and (per assumption) better thoughts, or did the false step oblige her to continue in the path she had entered?
— from The Daughters of Danaus by Mona Caird

The power, as at present exercised , was not fully established until 1688, (near five hundred years after Magna Carta,) when the House of Commons (falsely so called) had acquired such influence as the representative, not of the people, but of the wealth, of the nation , that they compelled the king to discard the oath fixed by the constitution of the kingdom; (which oath has been already given in a former chapter,(page 101 ) and was, in substance, to preserve and execute the Common Law, the Law of the Land,—or, in the words of the oath, " the just laws and customs which the common people had chosen ;") and to swear that he would "govern the people of this kingdom of England, and the dominions thereto belonging, according to the statutes in parliament agreed on , and the laws and customs of the same."
— from An Essay on the Trial by Jury by Lysander Spooner

His bachelorhood was no accident of fate, but rather a carefully contrived independence, for which he paid the price of eternal vigilance.
— from Mate in Two Moves by Winston K. Marks

Having neither a family nor friends, I am perfectly safe from the shocks, so injurious to life, which are caused by treachery, by the illness or death of relatives—let my indulgent reader recall how many people have perished before his eyes not of their own fault, but because capricious fate had linked them to people unworthy of them.
— from The Crushed Flower, and Other Stories by Leonid Andreyev

But Dr. Wayland considers the law of benevolence to forbid the use of force between men.
— from Elements of Military Art and Science Or, Course Of Instruction In Strategy, Fortification, Tactics Of Battles, &C.; Embracing The Duties Of Staff, Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, And Engineers; Adapted To The Use Of Volunteers And Militia; Third Edition; With Critical Notes On The Mexican And Crimean Wars. by H. W. (Henry Wager) Halleck

” He himself rushed out, followed by two policemen, while the others remained with the prisoners.
— from The Crystal Stopper by Maurice Leblanc

The prostrate natives lay for some time in a paralysis of fear; but finding that they were unhurt, and that the monster had withdrawn from them, they picked themselves up, and ran to overtake their friends, leaving the space clear.
— from Round the World in Seven Days by Herbert Strang

The cliff rose vertically on the inner side, without allowing us the possibility of a clamber, and in our fright, before the gentlemen could prevent us, we leaped over a low railing, which there served as a parapet, on to a ledge of rock, a few yards square, rising straight up from the lake hundreds of feet below.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 22, October, 1875, to March, 1876 A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science by Various

They had won it, as a matter of fact, by burning hay-ricks, rioting, and otherwise demonstrating their strength in the only way that English politicians can understand.
— from My Own Story by Emmeline Pankhurst

The Bourbons, especially King Louis XIV , were fanatical adherents of this doctrine and Colbert, his great minister of finance, became the prophet of Mercantilism to whom all Europe looked for guidance.
— from The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem Van Loon