Pray for us, my dear brother and sister, that these heavy afflictions may not be in vain, but may be blessed to our spiritual good, and the advancement of Christ's church among the heathen."
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

"The French navy has always preferred the glory of assuring or preserving a conquest to that more brilliant perhaps, but actually less real, of taking some ships, and therein has approached more nearly the true end that has been proposed in war."
— from The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

It is proper and fitting for a groom to have as many new clothes as he needs, or pleases, or is able to get—but they are never shown to indiscriminate audiences, they are not featured, and he does not go about looking "dressed up."
— from Etiquette by Emily Post

For your question was concerning a wise man, with whom nothing can have the appearance of evil that is not dishonorable; or at least, anything else would seem so small an evil that by his wisdom he would so overmatch it as to make it wholly disappear; and such a man makes no addition to his grief through opinion, and never conceives it right to torment himself above measure, nor to wear himself out with grief, which is the meanest thing imaginable.
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth by Marcus Tullius Cicero

Alexey Alexandrovitch, scowling with emotion, muttered something to himself, and made no answer.
— from Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

There was a buzz of voices through the house, as Miss Nancy entered, mingled with the scrape of a fiddle preluding in the kitchen; but the Lammeters were guests whose arrival had evidently been thought of so much that it had been watched for from the windows, for Mrs. Kimble, who did the honours at the Red House on these great occasions, came forward to meet Miss Nancy in the hall, and conduct her up-stairs.
— from Silas Marner by George Eliot

In less than five minutes I shall have thrown my pen into the fire, and the little drop of thick ink which is left remaining at the bottom of my ink-horn, after it—I have but half a score things to do in the time——I have a thing to name——a thing to lament——a thing to hope——a thing to promise, and a thing to threaten—I have a thing to suppose—a thing to declare——a thing to conceal——a thing to choose, and a 304 thing to pray for——This chapter, therefore, I name the chapter of T HINGS ——and my next chapter to it, that is, the first chapter of my next volume, if I live, shall be my chapter upon WHISKERS , in order to keep up some sort of connection in my works.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

‘No—damn it, no!’ shouted Miss Matilda. ‘Hold your tongue, can’t ye? and let me tell her about my new mare— such a splendour, Miss Grey!
— from Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë

Never could man say worse himself nor have worse said Never saw so many sit four hours together to hear any man Never to keep a country-house, but to keep a coach New medall, where, in little, there is Mrs. Steward’s face New Netherlands to English rule, under the title of New York Night the Dutch burned our ships the King did sup with Castlemayne No more matter being made of the death of one than another
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

They had as mottoes "No Taxes" and "Liberty of Conscience." IV FIRST VISIT TO BOSTON IR WILLIAM KEITH, governor of the province, was then at Newcastle, and Captain Holmes, happening to be in company with him when my letter came to hand, spoke to him of me, and show'd him the letter.
— from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

"Why not?" "Oh, they've too high an' mighty notions about the way men should live; that's the trouble."
— from Glen of the High North by H. A. (Hiram Alfred) Cody

The individual that responded or reacted to lines of new force then was possibly the same individual that reacts on it now, and his conception of the unity seems never to have changed in spite of the increasing diversity of forces; but the theory of variation is an affair of other science than history, and matters nothing to dynamics.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

10 And one day, as the king Vikramáditya was in the hall of assembly, the warder Bhadráyudha came in and said to him, “Your Majesty despatched Vikramaśakti with an army to conquer the southern region and other territories, and then sent to him a messenger named Anangadeva; that messenger has now returned, and is at the gate with another, and his delighted face announces good tidings, my lord.”
— from The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story by active 11th century Somadeva Bhatta

Lee’s army was back in Culpeper now with Federal troops at their heels, and McClellan, not Pope, in command.
— from A Virginia Girl in the Civil War, 1861-1865 being a record of the actual experiences of the wife of a Confederate officer by Myrta Lockett Avary

I have never used the title here and may never use it anywhere.
— from Felix O'Day by Francis Hopkinson Smith

In the very beginning of the meeting they had advised me not to preach on this subject.
— from Trials and Triumphs of Faith by Mary Cole

The supper had scarcely commenced when the tête-à-tête was interrupted by the appearance of none other than the "invincible Jermyn," one of the handsomest and most notorious roués of the day, a famous duellist, and one of my lady's most ardent lovers.
— from Love Romances of the Aristocracy by Thornton Hall

And, ladies and gentlemen, each has his own proper furrow to run, and he may make it well, or make it badly, plough deep, or merely skirt the soil, plough straight, or run a feeble, fluttering, irregular line, or he may even fold his hands, and take a snooze in the hedge, and make no attempt to plough.”
— from Arminell: A Social Romance, Vol. 2 by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould

Like everything that he does, it was magnificent; the lighting of the hall was especially novel and beautiful; there were no chandeliers, but three great arches formed of palm branches and surmounted with a row of candles; each of these arches was placed upon the pillars at each side of the hall, a most novel and tasteful device.
— from Memoirs of the Duchesse De Dino (Afterwards Duchesse de Talleyrand et de Sagan), 1841-1850 by Dino, Dorothée, duchesse de