I should rather expect, I said, that several of our proposals, if they are carried out, being unusual, may appear ridiculous.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

Let us make a relation of that which Alcibiades reports of Socrates, his fellow in arms: “I found him,” says he, “after the rout of our army, him and Lachez, last among those who fled, and considered him at my leisure and in security, for I was mounted on a good horse, and he on foot, as he had fought.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Je ne crois pas trop à un objet qui a des inconvénients clairs par rapport à un livre papier (prix / fragilité / aspect / confort visuel / etc.), et des avantages qui me semblent minimes (taille des caractères évolutifs / plusieurs livres dans un même appareil / rétro-éclairage de l'écran / etc.).
— from Entretiens / Interviews / Entrevistas by Marie Lebert

asketh the load-bearing spirit, that I may take it upon me and rejoice in my strength.
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Sword in hand he sprang at once upon Minerva and reviled her.
— from The Iliad by Homer

Then Lakshmaṇ moved with sorrow viewed His brother in unwonted mood, And reverent palm to palm applied, Thus spoke with lips which terror dried “Thy heart was ever soft and kind, To every creature's good inclined.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

Thus we hear of terrible giants hurling rocks, upheaving mountains, and raising earthquakes which engulf whole armies; these ideas, however, may be accounted for by the awful convulsions of nature, which were in operation in pre-historic times.
— from Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E. M. Berens

This night I sat up late to make up my accounts ready against to-morrow for my Lord.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Jazz always was imperfect music, and here, with untutored musicians and rude instruments, it was imperfection itself; but it is doubtful if any music ever soothed unstrung nerves as did this bit of jazz that rent the midnight silence at the top of the world.
— from Lost in the Air by Roy J. (Roy Judson) Snell

Unassigned dialogue usually makes a reader or hearer promptly recognize his preference for characterized rather than uncharacterized speech.
— from Dramatic Technique by George Pierce Baker

She takes leave of Paris with these words: "Better than the filled trunk and empty purse, which usually mark a return from Paris, will be a full heart and a hand clasping across the water another hand pure and resolute as itself."
— from Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910 by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards

" Diane glanced in utter mystification at Ronador's ashen face—there was a great fear in his eyes—and thence to Baron Tregar.
— from Diane of the Green Van by Leona Dalrymple

For it is impossible to comprehend how the first four books and part of the fifteenth can ever have constituted a distinct epic; since the adventures of Telemachus have no satisfactory termination, except at the point of confluence with those of his father, when the unexpected meeting and recognition takes place under the roof of Eumæus,—nor can any epic poem ever have described that meeting and recognition without giving some account how Odysseus came thither.
— from History of Greece, Volume 02 (of 12) by George Grote

After the Waartgelders had been disbanded, Utrecht revolutionized by main force, the National Synod decided upon, and the process of changing the municipal magistracies everywhere in the interest of Contra-Remonstrants begun, he continued to urge moderation and respect for law.
— from Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland : with a view of the primary causes and movements of the Thirty Years' War, 1618 by John Lothrop Motley

Trafalgar Road is the long thoroughfare which, under many aliases, runs through the Five Towns from end to end, uniting them as a river might unite them.
— from Anna of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett

We must admit that when we thought of those wound-chevroned Scots who had remained on the lines with the new Archangel troops of uncertain morale and recalled the looks in their eyes, we sensed a trace of bitter in our cup of joy.
— from The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki Campaigning in North Russia 1918-1919 by Joel R. (Joel Roscoe) Moore

She believes the selected few are better than the unwinnowed many as rulers.
— from The Canadian Commonwealth by Agnes C. Laut

Half the fellows were shot down at once; the rest of us made a rush to our swords just as the niggers came swarming into the room.
— from Among Malay Pirates : a Tale of Adventure and Peril by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty