A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench: but in truth shall He bring forth judgment.
— from The City of God, Volume II by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

No one, staring at that frightful female privilege, can quite believe in the equality of the sexes.
— from What's Wrong with the World by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

“I really couldn’t tell you, it’s quite out of the question; but I trust you will be able to guess it.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

body knew, was an unknown quantity; but in this case (as he properly observed), there was an unknown quantity of X. The opinion of Bob, the devil (who kept dark about his having ‘X-ed the paragrab’), did not meet with so much attention as I think it deserved, although it was very openly and very fearlessly expressed.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

She spoke of the scenery, quiet, yet august; of the snow-clad fields, with their scampering herds of deer; of the river and its quaint entrance into the Baltic Sea; of the Oderberge, only three hundred feet high, from which one slid all too quickly back into the Pomeranian plains, and yet these Oderberge were real mountains, with pine-forests, streams, and views complete.
— from Howards End by E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster

The Vánar swift as thought compressed His borrowed bulk of limb and chest, And stood with one quick bound inside The monstrous mouth she opened wide.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

They asked few questions, but if they had asked millions they would have got no answers.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

And when they're quickly borne In their exceeding lightness, easily (As earlier I showed) one subtle image, Compounded, moves by its one blow the mind, Itself so subtle and so strangely quick.
— from On the Nature of Things by Titus Lucretius Carus

The bridge hasn't quite broken in two yet."
— from The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair by Laura Lee Hope

I could not explain nor quite believe in the shapeless suspicion that with these light and bitter words of the old housekeeper had stolen so horribly into my mind.
— from Uncle Silas: A Tale of Bartram-Haugh by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Perhaps they're inherited qualities, because I think one or two are yours.
— from Northwest! by Harold Bindloss

It was a pleasant evening, the heat of the day being over; the skies were clear, fair, and lambent with the declining golden light: why should one hasten away from this quiet bower, in the sweet serenity and silence, with the perfume 196 of roses all around, and scarce a breath of air to stir the leaves?
— from Judith Shakespeare: Her love affairs and other adventures by William Black

"A clergyman gets used to opposition," replied Mr. Curzon, quietly; "but if the school is to be continued under the management of myself and my churchwardens, it shall be no hole-and-corner business: it shall be with the consent and confidence of the majority of my people.
— from The Village by the River by H. Louisa Bedford

Show a man or woman how to do a thing every day for a month, then impress it upon them that it must be done that way daily, and at the end of three days it would be found that they had ceased to do it, had succumbed to atavism and sunk quickly back into the ways of their ancestors.
— from Working North from Patagonia Being the Narrative of a Journey, Earned on the Way, Through Southern and Eastern South America by Harry Alverson Franck

"WHEREAS, from the report of General Howard and information received from comrades of the G. A. R., residents of Utah, we are advised that the representatives of the twin relic of barbarism design on the 24th inst., to repeat their treasonable actions of July 4th and threaten to trample the flag of our country in the dust, therefore, be it " Resolved , that the comrades of Lincoln Post, No. 2, G. A. R., tender to Governor Murray, of Utah, and to H. C. Wardleigh, Commander of the Department of Utah, G. A. R., the services of this Post at Salt Lake City on July 24, and 'continue during the war.' " Resolved , that the members of this Post hold themselves in readiness to 'move together' upon the request of our comrades in Utah; that the Quartermaster be instructed to at once issue members of the Post arms and ammunition, and the Adjutant be instructed to notify every member of this Post to report for duty at once.
— from The Life of John Taylor Third President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints by B. H. (Brigham Henry) Roberts

"Bring her into the living room and get her quieted before I talk to her," suggested Dicky, as he disappeared into his room after I had got her upstairs.
— from Revelations of a Wife The Story of a Honeymoon by Adele Garrison

I have no desire to overdraw his qualities, but if there was one thing in him more noticeable than another, it was his fondness for nature.
— from My Summer in a Garden by Charles Dudley Warner

Meanwhile, the countess was using all her efforts to procure her husband a pardon, but she was deterred from applying in the highest quarter, being informed that the king was greatly incensed against the rebel lords, and would not listen to her.
— from Preston Fight; or, The Insurrection of 1715 by William Harrison Ainsworth