Mr. Letterblair had laid his pen-handle against his big corrugated nose, and was looking down it with the expression assumed by virtuous elderly gentlemen when they wish their youngers to understand that virtue is not synonymous with ignorance.
— from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

“ By the authority of God Almighty, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and of the undefiled Virgin Mary, mother and patroness of our Saviour, and of all the celestial virtues, angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, powers, cherubins and seraphins, and of all the holy patriarchs, prophets, and of all the apostles and evangelists, and of the holy innocents, who in the sight of the Holy Lamb, are found worthy to sing the new song of the holy martyrs and holy confessors, and of the holy virgins, and of all the saints together, with the holy and elect of God,—May he” ( Obadiah ) “ be damn’d ” (for tying these knots)——“ We excommunicate, and anathematize him, and from the thresholds of the holy 12 tæ Dei ecclesiæ sequestramus, et æternis vel i n suppliciis excruciandus, mancipetur, cum Dathan et Abiram, et cum his qui dixerunt Domino Deo, Recede à nobis, scientiam viarum tuarum nolumus: et ficut aquâ ignis extinguatur lu-
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

Virtue is no sooner discovered to be teachable, than the discovery follows that it is not taught.
— from Meno by Plato

Dì pa aslum ang súkà ug dì pa muatay, Vinegar is not sour before it has formed a soft, slippery mass.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

Venus is not so beautiful, naked, alive, and panting, as she is here in Virgil: “Dixerat; et niveis hinc atque hinc Diva lacertis Cunctantem amplexu molli fovet.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

The original matter touching the sperm whale to be found in their volumes is necessarily small; but so far as it goes, it is of excellent quality, though mostly confined to scientific description.
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville

Wrong through violence is not so shameful to the doer of it as wrong through craft; for the former arises from physical power, which under all circumstances impresses mankind; while the latter, by the use of subterfuge, betrays weakness, and lowers man at once as a physical and moral being.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer

Sick of it and of him for it Sicke men that are recovered, they lying before our office doors Silence; it being seldom any wrong to a man to say nothing Singing with many voices is not singing Sir, your faithful and humble servant Sir W. Pen was so fuddled that we could not try him to play Sir W. Pen did it like a base raskall, and so I shall remember Sit up till 2 o’clock that she may call the wench up to wash Slabbering my band sent home for another
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

This valley is not surpassed by any in Switzerland.
— from Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy from Italy and Switzerland by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

It may not be amiss to explain the cause of this remarkable endorsement of Lincoln by the voters in New Salem.
— from Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, Volume 1 (of 2) by William Henry Herndon

“A very imperfect notion,” says Wakefield, in one of his letters to Fox, “is entertained in general of the copiousness of the Latin language, by those who confine themselves to what are styled the Augustan writers.
— from History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Age. Vol. I by John Colin Dunlop

Not that either, because I trust that the sound of the Bible verses is not so utterly new to you as it was to her—rather, that it might sound to you as it did to the earnest-souled young man who sat beside her, taking in ever; word with as much eagerness as if some of the verses had not been his dear and long-cherished friends; nay, with more eagerness on that account.
— from Four Girls at Chautauqua by Pansy

But Velléda is not simply French; she bears the distinct impress of the age of her creation; she is an ideal of 1808.
— from Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature - 3. The Reaction in France by Georg Brandes

Desz mandacz halb en ist inne n die anczeige geschehen dasz sie desz puncksz zufriede n gewest vnd die ding ko niglicher may estä t zu berichten auff sich geno m men alsz ist deszmalsz nicht witter gehandelt vnd auff den 26 tag maij habe n die ko nigliche may estä t die gesant en wiedervmb erforder n lassen vnd inne n selbst angeczeigt desz
— from Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell, Vol. 1 of 2 Life, Letters to 1535 by Roger Bigelow Merriman

The hillside land which is owned by the village is not sold but rented to those who want it.
— from The Foundations of Japan Notes Made During Journeys Of 6,000 Miles In The Rural Districts As A Basis For A Sounder Knowledge Of The Japanese People by J. W. (John William) Robertson Scott

And, to decypher the gentleman to the full; a piece of plate being missed in the court and searched for in his hay-house, in the hayrick such an image of our lady was there found, as for greatness, for gayness, and workmanship, I did -62- -vol ii- never see a match; and after a sort of country dances ended, in her majesty's sight the id
— from Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth by Lucy Aikin

This opinion of its therapeutic value is not shared by British and American practitioners, who look upon it as a comparatively inert substance.
— from Cooley's Cyclopædia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades..., Sixth Edition, Volume I by Richard Vine Tuson

My opportunities have been favorable for studying various classes of men, and my own experience corroborates the truth of Montaigne’s sagacious remark, ‘Confidence in another man’s virtue is no slight evidence of a man’s own.’
— from Vashti; Or, Until Death Us Do Part by Augusta J. (Augusta Jane) Evans