For many are the trees of God that grow In Paradise, and various, yet unknown To us; in such abundance lies our choice, As leaves a greater store of fruit untouched, Still hanging incorruptible, till men Grow up to their provision, and more hands Help to disburden Nature of her birth.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton

If my offence be of such mortal kind That nor my service past, nor present sorrows, Nor purpos'd merit in futurity, Can ransom me into his love again, But to know so must be my benefit; So shall I clothe me in a forc'd content, And shut myself up in some other course, To fortune's alms.
— from Othello, the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare

But the Mind never unbends itself so agreeably as in the Conversation of a well chosen Friend.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

ANT: Secondary, subordinate, posterior, unimportant, inferior, subsequent, later, [See PRINCIPAL].
— from A Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms or, Synonyms and Words of Opposite Meaning by Samuel Fallows

It is common report that the King, educated, cultivated and refined Christian gentleman as he undoubtedly is, still turns to the idols of his fathers for help when disaster threatens.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain

While the writing of an author of the third, the rare class, is like a chase where the game has been captured beforehand and cooped up in some enclosure from which it is afterwards set free, so many at a time, into another enclosure, where it is not possible for it to escape, and the sportsman has now nothing to do but to aim and fire—that is to say, put his thoughts on paper.
— from Essays of Schopenhauer by Arthur Schopenhauer

Mr. Micawber extended his hand to each of us in succession, and then covered his face with his pocket-handkerchief, which I think had more snuff upon it than he was aware of.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Muláting ang samad ug ibuwad sa ínit, A wound swells if you let the sun get on it.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

The primary are those organs and functions essential to reproduction; the secondary, those modifications of structure and function which subserve the uses of reproduction ultimately, but are not directly essential,—such as the horns of the stag, of use in sex-combat; the plumage of the peacock, of use in sex-competition.
— from Women and Economics A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Presently he told us in Spanish, to account for the English accent on which we complimented him, that he had two sons studying some manufacturing business in Manchester, where he had visited them, and acquired so much of our tongue as we had heard.
— from Familiar Spanish Travels by William Dean Howells

For several hours he marched ahead of us, proclaiming our social importance and ordering people out of the way, and every ten minutes he led us into some carefully concealed trap and tried to separate us from our piasters.
— from In Pastures New by George Ade

“General Alderson, who was in command of the reinforcements, accordingly directed that an advance should be made by a British brigade which had been brought up in support.
— from Horrors and Atrocities of the Great War Including the Tragic Destruction of the Lusitania by Logan Marshall

But thy grandmother, Roland—thy grandmother's zeal will ruin us, if she get not a hint to dissemble.” Roland, without reply, glided towards the door of the apartment, crossed the parlour, and safely entered the antechamber; but when he attempted to pass farther, the word “Back!
— from The Abbot by Walter Scott

It should bear in mind that while many of these 208 machines of war are essentially to be used in striking from the coasts themselves, yet that others must be designed to keep the enemy afar from these coasts.
— from America and the World War by Theodore Roosevelt

Suppose now (2) that both the water inlet and the gas exit of the carbide cylinder are at the same end, A. Again half the added water, as liquid, reacts with the carbide it first encounters, but the hot stream of damp gas is not permitted to travel over the rest of the lumps extending towards B: it is forced to return upon its steps, leaving B practically untouched.
— from Acetylene, the Principles of Its Generation and Use A Practical Handbook on the Production, Purification, and Subsequent Treatment of Acetylene for the Development of Light, Heat, and Power by W. J. Atkinson (William John Atkinson) Butterfield

Today his research stack has piled up into such a vast heap that he is now able to scatter it into scientific pastures in such aways as to be of the most fertilizing values therein for the enriching of future young minds and for the growing of reputation and fame for himself.
— from Colored girls and boys' inspiring United States history and a heart to heart talk about white folks by William Henry Harrison

A high rank, then, is claimed for it not upon its success as a literary partnership, for that at best would but excite a sort of curious interest, but upon its intrinsic merit as a work of fiction.
— from The Cross of Berny; Or, Irene's Lovers by Girardin, Emile de, Mme