Thanks to a little trick of destiny, every sentence in these criticisms seemed, with a consistency that I could but admire, to be an inverted truth.
— from Ecce Homo Complete Works, Volume Seventeen by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

It is certainly the general Intention of the greater Part of Mankind to accomplish this Work, and live according to their own Approbation, as soon as they possibly can: But since the Duration of Life is so incertain, and that has been a common Topick of Discourse ever since there was such a thing as Life it self, how is it possible that we should defer a Moment the beginning to Live according to the Rules of Reason?
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

“It is a law, doubtless, but a law neither more nor less normal than that of destruction, even self-destruction.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

As for my own part, I was considered in no other light than that of a menial servant, and had been already six days in the house without being honoured with one word from either mother or daughter; the latter (as I understood from the maids) having at table one day expressed some surprise that her papa should entertain such an awkward mean-looking journeyman.
— from The Adventures of Roderick Random by T. (Tobias) Smollett

Ordinary Herb True-love has a small creeping root running under the uppermost crust of the ground, somewhat like couch grass root, but not so white, shooting forth stalks with leaves, some whereof carry no berries, the others do; every stalk smooth without joints, and blackish green, rising about half a foot high, if it bear berries, otherwise seldom so high, bearing at the top four leaves set directly one against another, in manner of a cross or ribband tied (as it is called in a true-loves knot,) which are each of them apart somewhat like unto a night-shade leaf, but somewhat broader, having sometimes three leaves, sometimes five, sometimes six, and those sometimes greater than in others, in the middle of the four leaves rise up one small slender stalk, about an inch high, bearing at the tops thereof one flower spread open like a star, consisting of four small and long narrow pointed leaves of a yellowish green colour, and four others lying between them lesser than they; in the middle whereof stands a round dark purplish button or head, compassed about with eight small yellow mealy threads with three colours, making it the more conspicuous, and lovely to behold.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

The rising fury of the people was encouraged by the authority, or at least the connivance, of the senate; and the feeble remains of the Praetorian guards, who had reason to apprehend their own dissolution, embraced so honorable a pretence, and declared their readiness to draw their swords in the service of their oppressed country.
— 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

The rising fury of the people was encouraged by the authority, or at least the connivance, of the senate; and the feeble remains of the Prætorian guards, who had reason to apprehend their own dissolution, embraced so honorable a pretence, and declared their readiness to draw their swords in the service of their oppressed country.
— 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

The opposing delegations, each still nursing the chances of its own candidate, hesitated to give any positive promises to each other.
— from Abraham Lincoln, a History — Volume 02 by John G. (John George) Nicolay

In the old days enormous sums were staked on these birds, and not a few men were ruined by their passion for the sport.
— from The Wide World Magazine, Vol. 22, No. 127, October to March, 1909 by Various

The Hotel Crillon and Four Place de la Concorde were filled with Americans—college professors, army and navy officers, New York financiers, the mysterious Colonel and his family and family's friends, the other Delegates, Embassy secretaries and clerks, stenographers, soldiers and sailors, and journalists.
— from Paris Vistas by Helen Davenport Gibbons

It has turned out disastrously, every shilling you possessed is lost.
— from The Shield of Love by B. L. (Benjamin Leopold) Farjeon

Then, in a tone that told of deeper emotional struggle, there came from Ransom Turner’s lips: “Are you shore, Miss Florence?
— from The Silent Alarm by Roy J. (Roy Judson) Snell

"You seem to be fond, too, of dangerous exercise," she observed.
— from Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Winston Churchill by Winston Churchill