It is time that such a life is not distinctively human, but it is the privilege of man to partake in it, and such participation, at however rare intervals and for however short a period, is the highest Happiness which human life can offer.
— from The Ethics of Aristotle by Aristotle

All Ballarat English is like that, and the effect is very soft and pleasant; it takes all the hardness and harshness out of our tongue and gives to it a delicate whispery and vanishing cadence which charms the ear like the faint rustling of the forest leaves.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

I see; you want not only a State, but a luxurious State; and possibly in the more complex frame we may sooner find justice and injustice.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

“You’re a smart wench, Lucy,” he persisted; “I mean to do well by ye, and get ye a nice place down river; and you’ll soon get another husband,—such a likely gal as you—” “O! Mas’r, if you only won’t talk to me now,” said the woman, in a voice of such quick and living anguish that the trader felt that there was something at present in the case beyond his style of operation.
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Of the Arguments employed by Speculative Reason in Proof of the Existence of a Supreme Being Notwithstanding the pressing necessity which reason feels, to form some presupposition that shall serve the understanding as a proper basis for the complete determination of its conceptions, the idealistic and factitious nature of such a presupposition is too evident to allow reason for a moment to persuade itself into a belief of the objective existence of a mere creation of its own thought.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

If these men had served as privates in the Prussian army from 1760 to 1765, they would not be so apt to take objection.
— from Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray

[442] Be it far from us, therefore, that we should believe the times of Solomon are predicted in this promise, much less indeed those of any other king whatever.
— from The City of God, Volume II by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

Thus wiry roots of the catgut plant are so tough that they can almost stop a plowshare in the furrow.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

But truly there are many that go upon the road, who rather declare themselves strangers to pilgrimage than strangers and pilgrims in the earth."
— from The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read by John Bunyan

But none his secret could divine; If suffering he made no sign, Until one night as winter neared From all his haunts he disappeared— Evanished in a doubtful blank Like little crayfish in a bank, Their heads retracting for a spell, And pulling in their holes as well.
— from Shapes of Clay by Ambrose Bierce

But when they came up, the Spaniards brought a Gun right aft, and upwards of twenty small Arms pointed into the Boats; so that the Fight began before they could reach the Station agreed on, and both were forc’d to engage the Enemy abaft, where they had five Guns mounted.
— from A Cruising Voyage Around the World by Woodes Rogers

On tiptoe he crossed the intervening space, and peeped in through the open window.
— from The Doings of Raffles Haw by Arthur Conan Doyle

I do not like as a rule to tamper with an opponent’s witness, but as they played so very sharply with us, I think we may stretch a point in the present instance.”
— from Caught in a Trap by John C. (John Conroy) Hutcheson

ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF THE DEARLY BELOVED AND MUCH LAMENTED FATHER IN ISRAEL, JOSEPH SMITH, SENIOR, A PATRIARCH IN THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, WHO DIED AT NAUVOO, SEPTEMBER 14 1840.
— from History of the Prophet Joseph, by His Mother by Lucy Smith

As soon as Paris is taken—as it will be in about a fortnight—your sentence will be put into execution.
— from The Dispatch-Riders: The Adventures of Two British Motor-cyclists in the Great War by Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman

As you must resign all thought of him for spouse and protector in these troublous times, another must take his place.
— from Barbarossa; An Historical Novel of the XII Century. by Conrad von Bolanden

The Women's Liberal Federation had declared for the suffrage, and Punch illustrated the situation in a picture of two political lady cricketers appealing to the G.O.M. at the wicket: "A team of our own?
— from Mr. Punch's History of Modern England, Vol. 3 (of 4).—1874-1892 by Charles L. (Charles Larcom) Graves

It touched and woke imagination; and advancing to the door of the inn with very different thoughts from those which he had come from the supper-room, he gazed up towards the heavens, all sparkling with their everlasting fires, and fixing upon one bright planet which had not yet set, but remained pouring its calm light more tranquilly and equally than the rest, among all the radiant things that surrounded it, he thought that it was like her whom he had just seen, and, plunging into the dreams of fancy, he revelled in sweet reveries till it was time to depart.
— from Charles Tyrrell; or, The Bitter Blood. Volumes I and II by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James