Young man: I come of a famous family of fighters; and as your sister well knows, you would have as much chance against me as a perambulator against your motor car.
— from Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy by Bernard Shaw

For all progress is good relatively to the past, and yet may be comparatively evil when regarded in the light of the future.
— from Phaedo by Plato

If it is a fearful thing to die, it may be perchance a yet more fearful thing to live long.
— from The Imitation of Christ by à Kempis Thomas

Papa, a young man came into sister's room while I was there.
— from The Imaginary Invalid by Molière

Are not your name, your social position, and your merit sufficient?”
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

A country squire and his fat wife occupied the tapestried chamber; merry girls scampered up and down the long passages, and young men stared out of the latticed windows, watching for southerly winds and cloudy skies; there was not an empty stall in the roomy old stables; an extempore forge had been set up in the yard for the shoeing of hunters; yelping dogs made the place noisy with their perpetual clamor; strange servants herded together on the garret story; and every little casement hidden away under some pointed gable, and every dormer window in the quaint old roof, glimmered upon the winter's night with its separate taper, till, coming suddenly upon Audley Court, the benighted stranger, misled by the light, and noise, and bustle of the place, might have easily fallen into young Marlowe's error, and have mistaken the hospitable mansion for a good, old-fashioned inn, such as have faded from this earth since the last mail coach and prancing tits took their last melancholy journey to the knacker's yard.
— from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

" "But why?" Driven to subterfuge, she stammered— "Your father is a parson, and your mother wouldn' like you to marry such as me.
— from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy

The heathens took prisoner a young man of Danish family and carried him to Vindland, where he was in fetters along with other prisoners.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

[5643] Prosper adviseth young men not to read the Canticles, and some parts of Genesis at other times; but for such as are enamoured they forbid, as before, the name mentioned, &c., especially all sight, they must not so much as come near, or look upon them.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

He was forcibly ejected from the province, and it was not until 1847 that the province of Canada offered him redress in the shape of a pension of some fifty pounds a year, Mr. Gourlay being then resident in Scotland.
— from The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation Volume 1 by Charles Roger

shall I see the Directory?'—'On the ninth of this decade I shall speak to the President, and you may bring to me one of your acquaintance that is known to him, who will introduce you;' or that I might go alone, as my name was sufficiently known to him.
— from Secret Service Under Pitt by William J. (William John) Fitz-Patrick

“If you are come to say the same as before, Pietro Antonio, you may spare yourself the trouble,” said Lucia, clearly and firmly.
— from Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, May 1885 by Various

“In that supposition you are quite mistaken,” replied the vicar; “on the contrary, the hand-ball would seem to have been originally a female sport, for Homer has restricted the pastime to the princess and young maidens of Corcyra; at least, he has not mentioned its ever having been practised by the men.
— from Philosophy in Sport Made Science in Earnest Being an Attempt to Illustrate the First Principles of Natural Philosophy by the Aid of Popular Toys and Sports by John Ayrton Paris

But the will Of the great gods is plain; and ye must bring Ill deeds, ill passions, zealous to fulfil Their pleasure, to their feet; and reap their praise,— The praise of gods, rich boon!
— from Poems by Matthew Arnold

Masturbation or prostitution soon blight the brightest prospects a young man may have.
— from Searchlights on Health: The Science of Eugenics by B. G. (Benjamin Grant) Jefferis

The prisoner, a young man of birth and breeding, had strong grounds for revenge on the murdered man.
— from The Blotting Book by E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson

I had to satisfy her by running to the priest, and your mother, and the Senator——" "What!
— from The Art of Disappearing by John Talbot Smith

Third reason, and greatest in the Chinese mind, was the fact that years ago, but not so long but that the memory of it was as vivid as a lightning flash on a black night, Campbell—who had not been above turning his hand to various undertakings that, though murky of purpose, were productive in returns—had circumvented certain laws that prevented a yellow man from gaining entrance to the land of the Americans.
— from The Mark of the Knife by Clayton H. (Clayton Holt) Ernst

Item, if the Emperour will enter into bargain with you for the whole masse of your stock, and will haue the trade of it to vtter to his owne subiects, then debating the matter prudently among your selues, set such high prises of your commodities, as you may assure your selues to be gainers in your owne wares, and yet to buy theirs at such base prises, as you may here also make a commoditie and gaine at home, hauing in your mindes the notable charges that the companie haue diffrayed in aduancing this voyage: and the great charges that they sustaine dayly in wages, victuals and other things: all which must bee requited by the wise handling of this voyage, which being the first president shalbe a perpetual president for euer: and therefore all circumspection is to be vsed, and foreseene in this first enterprise, which God blesse and prosper vnder you, to his glorie, and the publike wealth of this Realme, whereof the Queenes Maiestie, and the Lords of the Councell haue conceiued great hope, whose expectations are not to be frustrated.
— from The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 03 by Richard Hakluyt