Heaven is too small a reward for it; they make choice of times and meats, buy and sell their merits, attribute more to them than to the ten Commandments, and count it a greater sin to eat meat in Lent, than to kill a man, and as one sayeth, Plus respiciunt assum piscem, quam Christum crucifixum, plus salmonem quam Solomonem, quibus in ore Christus, Epicurus in corde , pay more respect to a broiled fish than to Christ crucified, more regard to salmon than to Solomon, have Christ on their lips, but Epicurus in their hearts, when some counterfeit, and some attribute more to such works of theirs than to Christ's death and passion; the devil sets in a foot, strangely deludes them, and by that means makes them to overthrow the temperature of their bodies, and hazard their souls.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

Or suppose again, according to one of the stock illustrations of ethical inquiries, that a man betrayed a trust received from a friend, because the discharge of it would fatally injure that friend himself or some one belonging to him, would utilitarianism compel one to call the betrayal 'a crime' as much as if it had been done from the meanest motive?" I submit, that he who saves another from drowning in order to kill him by torture afterwards, does not differ only in motive from him who does the same thing from duty or benevolence; the act itself is different.
— from Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill

Advancing in single file along the bank of the stream, we soon found that it narrowed down to a mere brook, and finally that it lost itself in a great green morass of sponge-like mosses, into which we sank up to our knees.
— from The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

Of this preeminently distinguished man in the nineteenth century there are many biographies and lasting monuments.
— from Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ by Aaron Bernstein

The stranger sat and drank his wine as long as he liked: your mother did ask him if he would take any more bread and he said he would not.
— from The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original by Homer

I happened to carry a great many books with me, instead of merchandise, when I sailed my fourth voyage; for I was so far from thinking of soon coming back, that I rather thought never to have returned at all, and I gave them all my books, among which were many of Plato’s and some of Aristotle’s works: I had also Theophrastus on Plants, which, to my great regret, was imperfect; for having laid it carelessly by, while we were at sea, a monkey had seized upon it, and in many places torn out the leaves.
— from Utopia by More, Thomas, Saint

But I must recover myself; the contemplation of it, even at this distance of time, has taken away my breath and my grammar, and unless I subdue my emotion, my spelling will go too.
— from Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

There were crack skaters there, showing off their skill, and learners clinging to chairs with timid, awkward movements, boys, and elderly people skating with hygienic motives.
— from Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

The one heretofore his favorite stumbled, this very morning, on the road to town, and must be at once discarded.
— from The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

There assembled many bishops, and abbots, and others whom it behoved for that matter.
— from The Apology of the Church of England by John Jewel

"I dare say you'll try and make black appear white, and swear you didn't kill your wife."
— from The White Room by Fergus Hume

[Pg 149] was not so prepossessing as it had been at other times, and might be again.
— from The Copper Princess: A Story of Lake Superior Mines by Kirk Munroe

"What is that?" asked Mireille; but as nobody knew, nobody answered.
— from The Outrage by Annie Vivanti

Yet the perception of the real world, and all common sense, sagacity, and inventiveness, however multifarious their applications may be, are quite clearly seen to be nothing more than manifestations of that one function.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer

This, if the angle made by a watercourse with the distributary is 45°, gives rather more than two miles as the width of the strip to be irrigated.
— from Irrigation Works The Principles on Which Their Design and Working Should Be Based, with Special Details Relating to Indian Canals and Some Proposed Improvements by E. S. (Edward Skelton) Bellasis

Meanwhile he enjoys life and when presented to us is just going with Benjamin to a masked ball, after sending at the same time his nephew supperless to bed.—When they have left Heinrich reappears in the garb of Mephistopheles and clapping his hands, his fiancée Bertha, a poor seamstress soon enters.
— from The Standard Operaglass Detailed Plots of One Hundred and Fifty-one Celebrated Operas by Annesley, Charles, pseud.

In her "retreats" and in her religious life Esmeralda had for some years been brought nearer to many of her former friends with the same interests, but especially to Lady Lothian, Lady Georgiana Fullerton, and to a Miss Bradley, a recent pervert to the Church of Rome.
— from The Story of My Life, volumes 1-3 by Augustus J. C. (Augustus John Cuthbert) Hare

Dauntless my soul, and fiery-glad my heart, And “vastness,” “vastness,” sang through all my being, As gloved with adamant I guided on The day’s red coursers up their flaming hill, To reach the mighty keystone of the day.
— from Beyond the Hills of Dream by Wilfred Campbell