If formerly my affection for you was not so pure, if in those days the mind and the body shared in the pleasure of loving you, I often told you, even then, that I was more pleased with possessing your heart than with any other happiness, and the man was the thing I least valued in you.
— from Letters of Abelard and Heloise To which is prefix'd a particular account of their lives, amours, and misfortunes by Héloïse

You have often agreed with me that there is but one solution to the intricate riddle of life; to improve ourselves, and contribute to the happiness of others: and now, in the very prime of life, you desert your principles, and shut yourself up in useless solitude.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Would his next proceeding be the same as the proceeding of last year?
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

The most frequent form in which joy is prescribed as a cure is the joy in producing joy (such as doing good, giving presents, alleviating, helping, exhorting, comforting, praising, treating with distinction); together with the prescription of "love your neighbour."
— from The Genealogy of Morals The Complete Works, Volume Thirteen, edited by Dr. Oscar Levy. by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

If you have made your profit of life, you have had enough of it; go your way satisfied.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Though all Ramballe’s love stories had the sensual character which Frenchmen regard as the special charm and poetry of love, yet he told his story with such sincere conviction that he alone had experienced and known all the charm of love and he described women so alluringly that Pierre listened to him with curiosity.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Choose whatever piece of land you like; we have plenty of it.”
— from What Men Live By, and Other Tales by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Besides, my dear, let me beg of you to lay aside that wild project of leaving your business to turn lawyer, for which, let me tell you, Nature never designed you.
— from The History of John Bull by John Arbuthnot

A colour of pretext was afforded to the Bundi chief in a boundary dispute regarding a patch of land yielding only a few good mangoes; but, even admitting this as a palliative, it could not justify the inhospitable act, which in the mode of execution added cowardice to barbarity: for while both were pursuing the boar, the Bundi heir drove his lance through the heart of the Rana.
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 or the Central and Western Rajput States of India by James Tod

There have been failures in the pulpit, at the bar; in fact, in every pursuit of life you will presume we shall have failures with us for a great while; at least until the establishment of the religion of the body, when we shall cease to produce failures; and I have faith enough in the human race to believe that that time will come, but I do not expect it during my life.
— from The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 08 (of 12) Dresden Edition—Interviews by Robert Green Ingersoll

So, neighbours, tyek a hint, if ye peep ower lang ye'll squint, For aw think they're reetly nyem'd a Gleediscowpey-O.
— from The Newcastle Song Book; or, Tyne-Side Songster Being a Collection of Comic and Satirical Songs, Descriptive of Eccentric Characters, and the Manners and Customs of a Portion of the Labouring Population of Newcastle and the Neighbourhood by Various

If you are wise, whenever you touch the port of London, you'll give a miss to this old tub.
— from The Sailor by J. C. (John Collis) Snaith

She was a most respectable and prim old lady; yet I could not resist shocking her ears by an impropriety.
— from The Ghost: A Modern Fantasy by Arnold Bennett

In this { 205} portion of his sermon, if we may judge from the published tracts which were apparently founded on pulpit utterances, he was clear, simple, convincing; not making a parade of learning, yet bringing out withal the true significance of the sacred text.
— from John Knox by William M. (William Mackergo) Taylor

“Guess you’s a tol’able good watchman, po’ ole ’Lijah, you is.
— from Around the Yule Log by Willis Boyd Allen

No marine objects have become more universally popular of late years than Sea Anemones.
— from Glimpses of Ocean Life; Or, Rock-Pools and the Lessons they Teach by John Harper

For the first quarter of our present fiscal year the current receipts amount to $106,000, as against {42} $100,000 for the corresponding period of last year.
— from The American Missionary — Volume 45, No. 02, February, 1891 by Various

You shall not have the pain of linking your life to mine.
— from Roger Trewinion by Joseph Hocking

The people of Lindsey yéeld themselues to him.
— from Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volume 1, Complete by William Harrison