You are as wise as wise can be (having been brought up by the fairies), and you can tell me this: Is it better to have had a good thing and lost it, or never to have had it?' 'Explain, god-daughter.'
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

This mode of attack the Syracusans had with good reason adopted in preference to fighting at close quarters, as to risk a struggle with desperate men was now more for the advantage of the Athenians than for their own; besides, their success had now become so certain that they began to spare themselves a little in order not to be cut off in the moment of victory, thinking too that, as it was, they would be able in this way to subdue and capture the enemy.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

It is, perhaps, fortunate that Antoine Lerac is of no great prominence in this record, and of none in his official capacity at the slaughter-house.
— from The Slave of the Lamp by Henry Seton Merriman

Commence at A, take No. 2 in right hand, swing around the table to the right and lay in place of No. 2 at B, and bring back No. 2 from B and lay in place of No. 2 at A; then take No. 1 at A in left hand, and change places with No. 1 at B by swinging around to the left; then go to C, take Nos. 3 and lift over table and lay inside of Nos. 3 at D, and bring back Nos. 3 from D and lay in place of Nos. 3 at C; then go to E and change the Nos.
— from Self-Instructor in the Art of Hair Work, Dressing Hair, Making Curls, Switches, Braids, and Hair Jewelry of Every Description. by Campbell, Mark, active 19th century

They abuse one another behind their backs, but see how thick they are laying it on now,—like foxes wagging their tails!
— from The First Distiller by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

“Madame, you need not eat, if you prefer not; but you should sit at the table at least, in order not to attract the waiter’s attention.”
— from Le Cocu (Novels of Paul de Kock Volume XVIII) by Paul de Kock

While I was sitting with them, the fugitives drove in, bringing in news that Colonel B——, the commandant of the 41st, had been shot by his men; his poor daughter was with the fugitives: there were many missing, and it was afterwards known that all living in or near the Civil Lines perished, excepting Sir M—— J—— and his sister, who formerly resided here with their uncle, Mr. C. C. J——, the chief commissioner.
— from A Diary Kept by Mrs. R. C. Germon, at Lucknow, Between the Months of May and December, 1857 by Maria Germon

Whether, in these several measures, Patrick Henry was right or wrong, one thing, at least, is obvious: no politician who could thus beard in his very den the lion of public opinion can be accurately described as a demagogue.
— from Patrick Henry by Moses Coit Tyler

On account of the burial of St. Edward, the abbey and the church received their names from him; and the abbess was styled Abbess of St. Edward, and the very town almost lost its old name, and was called for some time Burgus Sancti Edwardi , and Edwardstowe ."
— from The Strife of the Roses and Days of the Tudors in the West by W. H. Hamilton (William Henry Hamilton) Rogers

“I must not tell, at least I ought not.
— from The Phantom Ship by Frederick Marryat