As when the potent Rod Of Amrams Son in Egypts evill day Wav'd round the Coast, up call'd a pitchy cloud 340 Of Locusts, warping on the Eastern Wind, That ore the Realm of impious Pharoah hung Like Night, and darken'd all the Land of Nile: So numberless were those bad Angels seen Hovering on wing under the Cope of Hell
— from The Poetical Works of John Milton by John Milton

There have been a few, who, quite independently of rewards and punishments or of posthumous reputation, or any other influence of public opinion, have been willing to sacrifice their lives for the good of others.
— from Gorgias by Plato

These notions of right and obligation are derived from nothing but the advantage we reap from government, which gives us a repugnance to practise resistance ourselves, and makes us displeased with any instance of it in others.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

The discovery of the body, which, in the initiations of the ancient Mysteries, was called the euresis , 165 and its removal, from the polluted grave into which it had been cast, to an honored and sacred place within the precincts of the temple, are all profoundly and beautifully symbolic of that great truth, the discovery of which was the object of all the ancient initiations, as it is almost the whole design of Freemasonry, namely, that when man shall have passed the gates of life and have yielded to the inexorable fiat of death, he shall then (not in the pictured ritual of an earthly lodge, but in the realities of that eternal one, of which the former is but an antitype) be raised, at the omnific word of the Grand Master of the Universe, from time to eternity; from the tomb of corruption to the chambers of hope; from the darkness of death to the celestial beams of life; and that his disembodied spirit shall be conveyed as near to the holy of holies of the divine presence as humanity can ever approach to Deity.
— from The Symbolism of Freemasonry Illustrating and Explaining Its Science and Philosophy, Its Legends, Myths and Symbols by Albert Gallatin Mackey

And since then, with very few exceptions, I have heard nothing but abuse, and this too in a spirit of bitterness at least as disproportionate to the pretensions of the poem, had it been the most pitiably below mediocrity, as the previous eulogies, and far more inexplicable.—This may serve as a warning to authors, that in their calculations on the probable reception of a poem, they must subtract to a large amount from the panegyric, which may have encouraged them to publish it, however unsuspicious and however various the sources of this panegyric may have been.
— from Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

There was a prodigious roar of applause, and out of the midst of it the king’s voice rose, saying: “Away with his bonds, and set him free! and do him homage, high and low, rich and poor, for he is become the king’s right hand, is clothed with power and authority, and his seat is upon the highest step of the throne! Now sweep away this creeping night, and bring the light and cheer again, that all the world may bless thee.”
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

Let nothing be done rashly, and at random, but all things according to the most exact and perfect rules of art.
— from Meditations by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius

Thirdly, The parts of pure space are immovable, which follows from their inseparability; motion being nothing but change of distance between any two things; but this cannot be between parts that are inseparable, which, therefore, must needs be at perpetual rest one amongst another.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 1 and 2 by John Locke

My first proposal to the Delegates of the Clarendon Press was that I should attempt an edition of Donne's poems resting on a collation of the printed texts; that for all poems which it contains the edition of 1633 should be accepted as the authority, to be departed from only when the error seemed to be obvious and certain, and that all such changes, however minute, should be recorded in the notes.
— from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts by John Donne

Brophy pondered long and presently reeled off a few names.
— from The Luck of the Mounted: A Tale of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police by Ralph S. (Ralph Selwood) Kendall

At the moment at which we write, after a lapse of eighty-six years, the flocks and herds of a wealthy agricultural population range over an area as large as that of Europe; five splendid provinces, each with its own court and parliament, can boast of cities equal in size to many European capitals, and constituting commercial marts second to none on the face of the globe.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 20, October 1874‐March 1875 by Various

His personal recollections of Alfred Tennyson, the Brownings their courtship; of Carlyle, are classics.
— from Historic Fredericksburg: The Story of an Old Town by John T. (John Tackett) Goolrick

If he dismounted the gun, the matter would probably remain only a jest, for such as yet Richambeau regarded it.
— from The Battle of the Strong: A Romance of Two Kingdoms — Complete by Gilbert Parker

But before the blow could be repeated a pistol rang out, and the rebel reeled against the wall, then sank to his knees and tried to crawl away.
— from The Disputed V.C.: A Tale of the Indian Mutiny by Frederick P. Gibbon

If they'd eaten them up clean I wouldn't have felt so bad, but there the ground would be covered with pears rotted on account of one little peck.
— from The Shoulders of Atlas: A Novel by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

The Zodiac can walk along fast enough without them, and we must not have the people roused out again, if we can help it.”
— from The Pirate of the Mediterranean: A Tale of the Sea by William Henry Giles Kingston

These passages remain open at all seasons of the year.
— from Bramble-Bees and Others by Jean-Henri Fabre