If, my friend, we say that the whole path and movement of heaven, and of all that is therein, is by nature akin to the movement and revolution and calculation of mind, and proceeds by kindred laws, then, as is plain, we must say that the best soul takes care of the world and guides it along the good path.
— from Laws by Plato

I scorn to be as abusive as Horace upon the occasion——but if there is no catachresis in the wish, and no sin in it, I wish from my soul, that every imitator in Great Britain, France, and Ireland, had the farcy for his pains; and that there was a good farcical house, large enough to hold—aye—and sublimate them, shag rag and bob-tail, male and female, all together: and this leads me to the affair of Whiskers ——but, by what chain of ideas—I leave as a legacy in mort-main to Prudes and Tartufs, to enjoy and make the most of. 4 UPON WHISKERS.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

She went to the window and gently propped aside the curtain and blind, so that the still light of the sky fell on the bed.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

There are two things to be taken into consideration, both what is possible and what is proper; every one then should chiefly endeavour to attain those things which contain both these qualities: but this is to be regulated by different times of life; for instance, it is not easy for those who are advanced in years to sing such pieces of music as require very high notes, for nature points out to them those which are gentle and require little strength of voice (for which reason some who are skilful in music justly find fault with Socrates for forbidding the youth to be instructed in gentle harmony; as if, like wine, it would make them drunk, whereas the effect of that is to render men bacchanals, and not make them languid): these therefore are what should employ those who are grown old.
— from Politics: A Treatise on Government by Aristotle

W: timorous, 1633-69 11 a greater wonder, 1633 , D , H49 , N , O'F (greate), TC , W: a greater, 1635-69 Note [pg 328] XIII.
— from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts by John Donne

There was a great deal of crushing and running about, but no one succeeded either on the first or second day.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

Among these was a grave gentleman, who had the honour to be in the commission of the peace for the county of Worcester.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

These works are generally represented as meant for the use of pious men who have retired to the forest and no longer perform sacrifices.
— from A History of Sanskrit Literature by Arthur Anthony Macdonell

In the afternoon I was invited to go to the best or one of the best collections in the country and that was a great experience.
— from Letters from China and Japan by Harriet Alice Chipman Dewey

This was a good beginning to our winter store.
— from Farthest North, Vol. II Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship 'Fram' 1893-1896 by Fridtjof Nansen

On they rode through the night, stopping to dismount only twice; and then it was not at any house, but at mere sheepfolds, where a fire was kindled by some of the party, and where they drank whisky, and laughed and talked in the warmth and glow of the fire, as if the poor lady had not been present.
— from The Billow and the Rock by Harriet Martineau

What will they return us for this enormous expense, after we have tempted them, by this bill, to leave their pursuits of honest industry, to go upon this wild and gambling adventure, in which their blood is to be staked?"
— from Thirty Years' View (Vol. 2 of 2) or, A History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850 by Thomas Hart Benton

she shuddered, realising that in all her life she could never undo the memory of his kisses––then she pulled herself together with a great effort and turned away.
— from The Phantom Lover by Ruby M. (Ruby Mildred) Ayres

Eppleby Holcomb kind of chuckled, and just {94} then we all got jostled for a minute with a lot passing us.
— from Neighborhood Stories by Zona Gale

There were a good many German Jews in California in the early days, and they were ardent gamblers.
— from The American Language A Preliminary Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States by H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken

The walls and gates of the town are in fairly good condition.
— from The Life and Letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq

They must pay a price equal to the collective cost of purchasing and bringing this substance from the most distant districts, to which they are at any time obliged to have recourse for a supply, or they will not be supplied; and as there cannot be two prices for the same thing in the same market, the wheat and grain produced in the neighbourhood of one of these Bundelcund capitals, fetch as high a price there as that brought from the most remote districts on the banks of the Nerbudda river; while it costs comparatively nothing to bring it from the former lands to the markets.
— from The Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign Why It Exists, and How It May Be Extinguished by Henry Charles Carey

It was not for a light, a little, an inconsiderable thing, that Christ Jesus underwent what he suffered when he was in the world, and gave himself a ransom for souls.
— from Works of John Bunyan — Complete by John Bunyan

He, too, was a Galway man, big, handsome, with a fine flowing beard, a fund of humour, and the most genial disposition imaginable.
— from Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland by Joseph Tatlow