For each man to be a standard to himself is most excellent for the good, but for the bad it is the worst of all things.
— from Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica by Hesiod

I would not have you too sanguine; though, however it may end, be assured your raising your thoughts to him , is a mark of good taste which I shall always know how to value.”
— from Emma by Jane Austen

I have had the honour (I must ever call it) once to have been admitted to the tea-table of Miss Kelly.
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb

And this shows that in all things the conversion to the higher is more effective than the propensity to the lower.
— from The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 1 by Emperor of Rome Julian

According to the historian, whose doubtful narrative the President De Montesquieu has adopted, Philip, who, during the whole transaction, had preserved a sullen silence, was inclined to spare the innocent life of his benefactor; till, recollecting that his innocence might excite a dangerous compassion in the Roman world, he commanded, without regard to his suppliant cries, that he should be seized, stripped, and led away to instant death.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

For in respect of the things which we can only represent as possible originally according to the causality of purposes, at least as concerns their propagation, this theory regards nature as self-producing, not merely as self-evolving: and so with the least expenditure of the supernatural leaves to nature all that follows after the first beginning (though without determining anything about this first beginning by which Physic generally is thwarted, however it may essay its explanation by a chain of causes).
— from Kant's Critique of Judgement by Immanuel Kant

"Next time I come here," he said to himself, "I must either bring sweets with me to make them like me or a stick to hit them with." Just before he reached the first landing he even had to wait a little while until a ball had finished its movement, two small lads with sly faces like grown-up scoundrels held him by his trouser-legs until it had; if he were to shake them off he would have to hurt them, and he was afraid of what noise they would make by shouting.
— from The Trial by Franz Kafka

Before you leave this house, I must exact a promise from you that you’ll get me an interview with her: consent, or refuse, I will see her!
— from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Thus hunger, in my experience, may be extremely keen without being appreciably painful: and when I find it painful, experience leads me to expect a temporarily reduced power of assimilation, indicating some disorganisation in the digestive apparatus.
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick

Patience, gentleness, and untired affection, shall recall him, if it be true, as Raymond says, that he is mad; energy and courage shall rescue him, if he be unjustly imprisoned.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The multitude of similar parts required by the Analytical Engine, amounting in some instances to upwards of fifty thousand, rendered any, even the simplest, improvement of each part a matter of the highest importance, more especially as regarded the diminished amount of expenditure for its construction.
— from Passages from the Life of a Philosopher by Charles Babbage

Logo, as he was called, had often followed the hounds in “merrie England;” and, when his master came to take possession of a property in Antigua, his faithful steed, the sharer of many a long day’s sport, was not to be left behind.
— from Antigua and the Antiguans, Volume 1 (of 2) A full account of the colony and its inhabitants from the time of the Caribs to the present day by Mrs. Lanaghan

The country would be more ready to accept prohibition brought about by Constitutional amendment than have it made effective by Presidential ukase.
— from Woodrow Wilson as I Know Him by Joseph P. (Joseph Patrick) Tumulty

The eastern slope of the Helicon is more especially distinguished for its charming beauty, its woods, its verdant pastures, gardens, and murmuring springs, which contrast most favourably with the bare and arid plains of Bœotia.
— from The Earth and its inhabitants, Volume 1: Europe. Greece, Turkey in Europe, Rumania, Servia, Montenegro, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. by Elisée Reclus

Every man, however, can apply in his apartments the precautionary methods which we have suggested to the owner of a house, and thus the tenant will have this advantage over the owner, that the apartment, which is less spacious than the house, is more easily guarded.
— from The Physiology of Marriage, Complete by Honoré de Balzac

I must confess that the birth and fortune of the lady added no beauty to her in my eyes, as it seems to have done in those of others; yet I cannot but think that the woman would make a suitable match for me.
— from Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 04 (of 15), English by Charles Morris

The Glutton The voice of the glutton I heard with disdain— "I've not eaten this hour, I must eat again; Oh! give me a pudding, A pie, or a tart, A duck or a fowl, Which I love from my heart.
— from Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1 by E. W. (Edward William) Cole

Graetz, on the other hand, heeded the individuality of his pupils, and in his activity as teacher had in mind especially their stimulation and encouragement.
— from History of the Jews, Vol. 6 (of 6) Containing a Memoir of the Author by Dr. Philip Bloch, a Chronological Table of Jewish History, an Index to the Whole Work by Heinrich Graetz

"Doubtless you are engaged in various intellectual pursuits which help to pass the time," Mrs. Dewar remarked graciously, and she smiled upon Mr. Wycherly—all women did when they got the chance—and during the rest of her somewhat prolonged visit she addressed her remarks almost exclusively to him: ignoring Miss Esperance, who sat still and straight in her high-backed chair with a look of considerable amusement in her kind old eyes.
— from Miss Esperance and Mr Wycherly by L. Allen (Lizzie Allen) Harker