I cured him at last; but he was very bad all the winter—and this was such a day, I could not help going to him up in his room before we set off to advise him not to venture: he was putting on his wig; so I said, 'Coachman, you had much better not go; your Lady and I shall be very safe; you know how steady Stephen is, and Charles has been upon the leaders so often now, that I am sure there is no fear.'
— from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

I thought to myself, “Here's a man with a wooden leg—a literary man with—“' 'N—not exactly so, sir,' said Mr Wegg. 'Why, you know every one of these songs by name and by tune, and if you want to read or to sing any one on 'em off straight, you've only to whip on your spectacles and do it!' cried Mr Boffin.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

To reject such arbitrary definitions is called atheism by those who frame them; but a man who studies for himself the ominous and the friendly aspects of reality and gives them the truest and most adequate expression he can is repeating what the founders of religion did in the beginning.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

985 What I shal after doon, I can not seye; But trewely, as yet me list not pleye.
— from Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer

People would do well if they would keep piety, which is so essential and lovable in life, distinct from art, where, owing to its very simplicity and dignity, it checks their energy, allowing only the very highest mind freedom to unite with, if not actually to master, it.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

The think that will logically extinguish him is perhaps still a desideratum in Constitutional civilisation.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

"Justice and honesty will be the first topics of our speech, especially as we are asking for alliance; because we know that there can never be any solid friendship between individuals, or union between communities that is worth the name, unless the parties be persuaded of each other's honesty, and be generally congenial the one to the other; since from difference in feeling springs also difference in conduct.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

Suppose they cost you for herding, shearing, and dipping, in case you cannot manage the flock yourself, three hundred dollars.
— from Philip of Texas: A Story of Sheep Raising in Texas by James Otis

Sirási, a disease in children proceeding of an inflamation in the braine.
— from Queen Anna's New World of Words; or, Dictionarie of the Italian and English Tongues by John Florio

The dictates of nature are violated when harshness takes the place of sympathy, and destitution is considered a sufficient warrant for deliberate and continuous ill-treatment.
— from The History of Prostitution: Its Extent, Causes, and Effects throughout the World by William W. Sanger

An old gentleman of our English society watched it too, and I wondered why his head shook continually as he sat with his eyes fixed on those sad ruins; but I found afterwards that the sight, and doubtless its cause, had palsied him from that day.
— from Sketches of Our Life at Sarawak by Henriette McDougall

The chroniclers who set down, often at inordinate and wearisome length, what was said and done in court or council or monastery did not wholly overlook the 'gospel of green fields' sung by the contemporary minstrels.
— from The Balladists by John Geddie

"In short," said Arthur, desperately, "I come to ask you to sanction my engagement to Angela."
— from Dawn by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

Why any sign should be necessary for such a destination I could not imagine.
— from Over There: War Scenes on the Western Front by Arnold Bennett

In wise and devout hands it might elevate incalculably the moral and material standards of European civilization; in the hands of the selfish and depraved it could become the instrument of minute and all-pervading oppression, driving whole nations to despair.
— from A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume I by Henry Charles Lea

(Pleas'd to my soul at death I cry)
— from The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit by Ralph Waldo Trine