Let us note that in every one of us there are two guiding and ruling principles which lead us whither they will; one is the natural desire of pleasure, the other is an acquired opinion which aspires after the best; and these two are sometimes in harmony and then again at war, and sometimes the one, sometimes the other conquers.
— from Phaedrus by Plato

With old liars who have been acting all their lives there are moments when they enter so completely into their part that they tremble or shed tears of emotion in earnest, although at that very moment, or a second later, they are able to whisper to themselves, “You know you are lying, you shameless old sinner!
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

By this also I can understand why the most considerable objections which I have as yet met with against the Critique turn about these two points, namely, on the one side, the objective reality of the categories as applied to noumena, which is in the theoretical department of knowledge denied, in the practical affirmed; and on the other side, the paradoxical demand to regard oneself qua subject of freedom as a noumenon, and at the same time from the point of view of physical nature as a phenomenon in one's own empirical consciousness; for as long as one has formed no definite notions of morality and freedom, one could not conjecture on the one side what was intended to be the noumenon, the basis of the alleged phenomenon, and on the other side it seemed doubtful whether it was at all possible to form any notion of it, seeing that we had previously assigned all the notions of the pure understanding in its theoretical use exclusively to phenomena.
— from The Critique of Practical Reason by Immanuel Kant

124b] Further, such men become supercilious and insolent, it not being easy to bear prosperity well without goodness; and not being able to bear it, and possessed with an idea of their own superiority to others, they despise them, and do just whatever their fancy prompts; for they mimic the Great-minded man, though they are not like him, and they do this in such points as they can, so without doing the actions which can only flow from real goodness they despise others.
— from The Ethics of Aristotle by Aristotle

It isn’t the sort of thing one should talk of in private.
— from The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People by Oscar Wilde

Brage the old sings thus of it: Gefjun glad Drew from Gylfe The excellent land, Denmark’s increase, So that it reeked From the running beasts.
— from The Younger Edda; Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson

For as in Rome, when a dictator is proclaimed, all other magistrates lay down their offices, so those over whom Love is lord are free henceforward from all other lords and masters, and pass the rest of their lives dedicate to the god and slaves in his temple.
— from Plutarch's Morals by Plutarch

But some may be ready to say, that truly the people of Cesarea had always a quarrel against those that lived among them, and that when an opportunity offered itself, they only satisfied the old rancor they had against them.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus

We were therefore obliged to billet ourselves on the officer stationed there, of whose hospitality and endeavour to make the time pass pleasantly till he had the Bee ready for the lake, I shall ever retain a pleasant remembrance.
— from Toronto of Old Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario by Henry Scadding

If they are put near him, that he may feel them or smell them, or if by any other means he can judge between them, he can choose, otherwise he cannot choose.
— from The Doctrines of Predestination, Reprobation, and Election by Robert Wallace

It isn't the scamp, the roué, a girl shies at; it's the old scamp, the old roué.
— from The Gay Lord Quex: A Comedy in Four Acts by Arthur Wing Pinero

Two English artists were sitting on the terrace; one sketching, the other lazily chatting.
— from The Gadfly by E. L. (Ethel Lillian) Voynich

There must be other things besides aërolites that wander from their own spheres to ours; and when we speak of celestial sweetness or beauty, we may be nearer the literal truth than we dream.
— from The Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes: An Index of the Project Gutenberg Editions by Oliver Wendell Holmes

They passed the spot where stood the two girls, the one supporting the other, and so disappeared out of sight.
— from The Tale of Timber Town by Alfred A. (Alfred Augustus) Grace

I cannot help thinking that if we spend one half of our days in pleasure and the other in lolling off its fatigues, we shall have passed through life more to our shame than our profit!"
— from Thaddeus of Warsaw by Jane Porter