No Covenant With Beasts To make Covenant with bruit Beasts, is impossible; because not understanding our speech, they understand not, nor accept of any translation of Right; nor can translate any Right to another; and without mutuall acceptation, there is no Covenant.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

When wet, an Umbrella should neither be distended to dry, which will strain the ribs and covering, and prevent its ever afterwards folding up neatly, nor at once rolled and tied up, which would tend to rust the frame and rot the textile fabric; neither should it, if of silk, be carelessly thrust into an Umbrella-stand, nor allowed to rest against a wall, which would probably discolour, and certainly crease the silk injuriously.
— from Umbrellas and Their History by William Sangster

The storm of rebellion that led to the parting, the wild and reckless life in the far country, the gambling, the drinking, the fighting, the things that he knew and the things that he guessed—and then, the ways of Abel when he returned, at times, in the earlier years, with his pockets full of money to spend it in the worst company and with a high-handed indifference to all restraint, yet always with a personal charm of generosity and good-will that drew people to him and gave him a strange power over them—and then, Abel's final refusal to listen any more to the pleadings of the true faith, his good-humoured obstinacy in unbelief, his definite choice of the world as his portion, and after that the long silence and the growing rumours of his wealth, his extravagance, his devotion, if not to the lust of the flesh, at least to the lust of the eyes and the pride of life—all these thoughts and pictures rushed upon Nathaniel North and overwhelmed him with painful terror and foreboding.
— from The Unknown Quantity: A Book of Romance and Some Half-Told Tales by Henry Van Dyke

"No." "Nor as a martyr to principle, a victim of that most iniquitous and tyrannical Act of Uniformity?" "No." "Nor as one of those whom they call Oliverians?" "No."
— from The Old Dominion by Mary Johnston

Those who remain will remember the bearing of their companion, on that occasion, as extraordinary—the struggle between inclination and duty—the pathos with which he delivered his speech to the people after the assassination, but especially his bearing and manner in the reply to Cassius' proposition to swear the conspirators—the expansion of his person to all its proportions, as if his soul was about to burst from his body, as he uttered: "No, not an oath.
— from The Memories of Fifty Years Containing Brief Biographical Notices of Distinguished Americans, and Anecdotes of Remarkable Men; Interspersed with Scenes and Incidents Occurring during a Long Life of Observation Chiefly Spent in the Southwest by W. H. (William Henry) Sparks

Bees do their work on buckwheat from the time the dew is leaving until near noon; and on a hot, clear day but few bees, if any, will be found working on it after 12 M. One of the greatest elements of success in hunting bees by the baiting method is to use a scent that is the same as the flower the bee is working on.
— from Bee Hunting: A Book of Valuable Information for Bee Hunters Tells How to Line Bees to Trees, Etc. by John Ready Lockard

During the day we followed the road, which led us nearly north, avoiding observation by [Pg 79] frequently taking to the woods and by keeping a skirmisher well ahead to observe all curves in the road.
— from The Bright Side of Prison Life Experience, In Prison and Out, of an Involuntary Soujouner in Rebellion by S. A. (Samuel A.) Swiggett

We had been out to the grounds practicing until nearly nightfall and on the way home we stepped into a German saloon on the corner for the purpose of refreshing the inner man and washing the dust out of our throats.
— from A Ball Player's Career Being the Personal Experiences and Reminiscensces of Adrian C. Anson by Adrian Constantine Anson

The mirror can tell us nothing, nor any of those things you are torturing yourself with.
— from The Second Class Passenger: Fifteen Stories by Perceval Gibbon

The custom was continued throughout the Middle Ages; but a good article, the proverb tells us, needs no advertisement, or, as the French proverb hath it, "Au vin qui se vend bien il ne faut point de lierre."
— from Proverb Lore Many sayings, wise or otherwise, on many subjects, gleaned from many sources by F. Edward (Frederick Edward) Hulme