He was a man who had seen the ruin of many a likely young farmer and mechanic, from the same beginnings; and he was by no means pleased with my prospects.
— from The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 3, September 1837 by Various

“I intend to secure the release of Madame and Luba—to set right an unjust and outrageous wrong.
— from The Price of Power Being Chapters from the Secret History of the Imperial Court of Russia by William Le Queux

Boast not, proud Golgotha, that thou canst show The ruins of mankind, and let us know How frail a thing is flesh!
— from Poems of Henry Vaughan, Silurist, Volume II by Henry Vaughan

To look for our modern philanthropy in that "Greek Gazette," the Iliad of Homer—to expect that reverence for the Supreme Being which the Bible has taught us in the Metamorphoses of Ovid—or to seek that refinement of manners and language which has only of late prevailed amongst us, in the plays of Aristophanes and Plautus—were very foolish and very vain.
— from The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Volume 2 With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by John Dryden