It is sufficient for the present purpose to observe in general, that power and riches commonly cause respect, poverty and meanness contempt, though particular views and incidents may sometimes raise the passions of envy and of pity.
— from An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume

Consider yourself as in your own house, and to put yourself still more at your ease, pray accompany me to the apartments of M. de Morcerf, he whom I wrote from Rome an account of the services you rendered me, and to whom I announced your promised visit, and I may say that both the count and countess anxiously desire to thank you in person.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

: Months ago, when Mr. Sutro incidentally exposed mining management on the Comstock, and among others roused me to protest against its continuance, in great kindness you warned me that any attempt by publications, by public meetings and by legislative action, aimed at the correction of chronic mining evils in Storey County, must entail upon me (a) business ruin, (b) the burden of all its costs, (c) personal violence, and if my purpose were persisted in, then (d) assassination, and after all nothing would be effected.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain

“Prince Vasíli arrived in Moscow yesterday.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

We entered the mine in the afternoon; it has very unusual workings, as the beds are practically vertical, and is most interesting.
— from A Journal from Japan: A Daily Record of Life as Seen by a Scientist by Marie Carmichael Stopes

These are those, who they tell us our Witches, Sorcerers, Wizards, and such Sorts of Folks converse freely with, and are therefore call’d their Familiars ; and as they tell us, come to them in human Shapes, talk to them with articulate plain Voices, as if Men, and that yet the said Witches, &c. know them to be Devils .
— from The History of the Devil, As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts by Daniel Defoe

“Without poetic vision all is mere marquetery and cabinet-maker’s work: that is, so far as poetry is concerned—nothing.”
— from Essays in Little by Andrew Lang

My barometer and thermometer know more than all possible visitors; and in my studies in natural history," added he, "I have not found in the whole animal kingdom a species, or class, or family, who frighten me so much as the numerous family of idlers " Dr. Pepusch.
— from The Book of Three Hundred Anecdotes Historical, Literary, and Humorous—A New Selection by Various

This I think I have conclusively proved, both in my present volume and in my larger work: "The Empire of the Tsars."
— from The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen by Simon Wolf

What superb responses the cornet makes to her, and how perfectly voice and instrument match each other!
— from Letters of Peregrine Pickle by George P. (George Putnam) Upton

It would have been safer to wear a veil, but Madame de La Valette had never done so in her previous visits, and it might cause suspicion.
— from Modern French Prisons Bicêtre; St. Pélagie; St. Lazare; La Force; The Conciergerie; La Grande and La Petite Roquettes; Mazas; La Santé by Arthur Griffiths

I have barely left room in the lower cabin to sleep or dress in, having filled it with my own private venture, as is my right.”
— from Afloat and Ashore: A Sea Tale by James Fenimore Cooper

My time isn't of any particular value, and I might as well go fishing.”
— from Do and Dare — a Brave Boy's Fight for Fortune by Alger, Horatio, Jr.

If we could place the northwestern corner of Texas at Chicago, its most southerly point would be at Jacksonville, Fla., its most easterly at Petersburg, Va., and its most westerly in the interior of Missouri.
— from Tenting on the Plains; or, General Custer in Kansas and Texas by Elizabeth Bacon Custer