There is no appearance that he disguised anything, either upon the account of hatred, favour, or vanity; of which the free censures he passes upon the great ones, and particularly those by whom he was advanced and employed in commands of great trust and honour, as Pope Clement VII., give ample testimony.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Few, I believe, have had much affection for mankind, who did not first love their parents, their brothers, sisters, and even the domestic brutes, whom they first played with.
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects by Mary Wollstonecraft

He begs to be absolved from speaking falsely, but he is willing to speak the truth, and proposes to begin by questioning Agathon.
— from Symposium by Plato

Because the convent, which is common to the Orient as well as to the Occident, to antiquity as well as to modern times, to paganism, to Buddhism, to Mahometanism, as well as to Christianity, is one of the optical apparatuses applied by man to the Infinite.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Then drawing his sword, he cried to him to rise, and rushed upon him; but Flollo, starting up, met him with his spear couched, and pierced the breast of King Arthur’s horse, and overthrew both horse and man.
— from The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by Knowles, James, Sir

Come, let a proper text be read, An' touch it aff wi' vigour, How graceless Ham^5 leugh at his dad, Which made Canaan a nigger; Or Phineas^6 drove the murdering blade, Wi' whore-abhorring rigour;
— from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns

[page 101] Or tak'st thou pride to break us on the wheel, And view old Chaos in the Pains we feel?
— from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts by John Donne

Here this young fellow, who, though only seventeen years of age, and about sixty-five inches high, with a constitution naturally rickety and much impaired by premature brandy and water, had an undoubted courage and a lion's heart, poised, tried, bent, and balanced a weapon such as he thought would do execution amongst Frenchmen.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

To this actidentality I object, as contravening the essence of poetry, which Aristotle pronounces to be spoudaiotaton kai philosophotaton genos, the most intense, weighty and philosophical product of human art; adding, as the reason, that it is the most catholic and abstract.
— from Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Yoshii received us at the door, and ushered us into a room where we found Komatsu, the agent and Matsuki Kôwan; the latter was one of the two prisoners taken by us in 1863, and I had some suspicion that he was not altogether to be trusted, as he was reported to have been in the Tycoon's service during the interval.
— from A Diplomat in Japan The inner history of the critical years in the evolution of Japan when the ports were opened and the monarchy restored, recorded by a diplomatist who took an active part in the events of the time, with an account of his personal experiences during that period by Ernest Mason Satow

Nor, lastly, is decadence inevitable if statesmen and philosophers working in harmony can preserve the perfection that has been reached and check the threatened destruction, and if in point of fact, as he observes, the aristocratic republics which survived his own day as remnants of the Middle Ages succeeded in preserving themselves by arts of "superfine wisdom."
— from The Philosophy of Giambattista Vico by Benedetto Croce

There is, however, a sentimental honour, a probity, trivial but strictly accurate, in affairs of the heart, as there is professional honour and probity in money matters.
— from The Blue Duchess by Paul Bourget

In the months of December and January, there always come many junks and proas to Bantam laden with pepper, from Cherringin and Jauby ,[144] so that there is always enough of pepper to be had at the end of January to load three large ships.
— from A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08 by Robert Kerr

"Pull the bell," said she to Flaxie.
— from Doctor Papa by Sophie May

Mrs. Winstone was one of those extremely smart English women who put on an expression of youthful vacuity with their public toilettes, but at this point she so far forgot herself as to sit up and gasp.
— from Julia France and Her Times: A Novel by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

In 1700, a bill was passed to be in effect seven years, which says: [69] “Considering that maintenance of speedy correspondence is good for trade and is best carried on by public post, Be it enacted, that there be a General Letter Office erected and established in Philadelphia to send letters to colonies planted in America or in any of the King’s Kingdoms in foreign lands.”
— from The Early History of the Colonial Post-Office by Mary Emma Woolley

But the few are the product of the many, just as each individual is, so where are we to place the blame?
— from Death's Wisher by Jim Wannamaker

Every day he helped Dan clear the big wick, polish the brass work, and wash the glass lantern which protected the flame.
— from Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag, Volume 6 An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, Etc. by Louisa May Alcott

As one of the most important and lucrative branches of the commerce of Rhodes was to the countries lying on this sea, they were much aggrieved by this toll, and endeavoured to persuade the Byzantines to take it off, but in vain.
— from A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 18 Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century, By William Stevenson by William Stevenson

But come, I am not too proud to borrow from you: it is not for a selfish purpose.”
— from What Will He Do with It? — Complete by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron