In conversation people generally do not object to a witty jest causing merriment and laughter.”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

From these two distinct rights, the one of punishing the crime for restraint, and preventing the like offence, which right of punishing is in every body; the other of taking reparation, which belongs only to the injured party, comes it to pass that the magistrate, who by being magistrate hath the common right of punishing put into his hands, can often, where the public good demands not the execution of the law, remit the punishment of criminal offences by his own authority, but yet cannot remit the satisfaction due to any private man for the damage he has received.
— from Second Treatise of Government by John Locke

Where the public good does not evidently demand a change; it is certain, that the concurrence of all those titles, original contract, long possession, present possession, succession, and positive laws, forms the strongest title to sovereignty, and is justly regarded as sacred and inviolable.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

In the meantime it will not displease me, if it is known that this is given by one who, though born and educated in France, has the love and veneration of a loyal subject for this nation, one who, by a fatality, which with many more made him say, Nos patriam fugimus et dulcia linquimus arva, is obliged to make the language of these happy regions as natural to him as he can, and thankfully say with the rest, under this Protestant government, Deus nobis haec otia fecit. IMG IMAGE END The Author’s Epistle Dedicatory.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

I told him I did not at all see how Strutwell's being a rascal alleviated my misfortune; and gave him to understand that my present grief did not so much proceed from that disappointment, as from the low ebb of my fortune, which was sunk to something less than two guineas.
— from The Adventures of Roderick Random by T. (Tobias) Smollett

But the Pythian god did not specify to which of the divinities nor in what way they should offer these, and the Etruscan appeared to have the knowledge but would explain nothing.
— 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 passage across the mouth of the Persian Gulf does not occupy more than one day.
— from The Geography of Strabo, Volume 3 (of 3) Literally Translated, with Notes by Strabo

My lady hated Alicia for her frank, passionate, generous, daring nature; she hated her step-daughter, and clung to this pale-faced, pale-haired girl, whom she thought neither better nor worse than herself.
— from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

His poetical genius did not ripen till long after that time.
— from Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Jean de La Fontaine

The impact of twenty-seven sail-of-the-line in that quarter would have been decisive; but probably Godoy did not yet feel warranted in throwing down the gauntlet.
— from William Pitt and the Great War by J. Holland (John Holland) Rose

The poor girl did not fail to see that Eugene looked very handsome in his new clothes.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

And to-day Peter Gerasimovitch did not arouse any unpleasant feelings in Nekhludoff by his familiarity and his loud laughter.
— from Resurrection by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

The poor girl did not speak, for when she looked at the great, thin, transparent hand which held hers, and thought of the day when it swayed the heavy sword so deftly, she could not control herself, and burst into tears.
— from The Hot Swamp by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

‘We have in this admirable volume a most valuable addition to our historical portrait gallery.’— Daily News.
— from A Catalogue of Books and Announcements of Methuen and Company, October 1902 by Methuen & Co.

Enterprising mothers of families hoped that he was a Cossack Cœlebs in search of a wife, and began, on the strength of the surmise, to lay plots for ensnaring him, justly considering that a fool with money is preferable to a sage without; landowners trembled at the idea of his being a government assessor, come to examine into the state of the properties, and assess accordingly; while government employés , knowing too well that a paternal government does not tolerate plundering in subordinates, shuddered, conscience-stricken, at the idea that he must be a St Petersburg inspector, come to Nikolsk with powers of scrutiny, and equally unlimited powers of knouting.
— from Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 460 Volume 18, New Series, October 23, 1852 by Various

Major (after a pause): "Gentlemen, do not embarrass me."
— from The Revolutionary Movement of 1848-9 in Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany With Some Examination of the Previous Thirty-three Years by C. Edmund (Charles Edmund) Maurice