First of all, the chair with which Chichikov (the fortress in question) sought to defend himself was wrested from his grasp by the serfs, and then—blinking and neither alive nor dead—he turned to parry the Circassian pipe-stem of his host.
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

Experience has constantly proved that a mere multitude of brave men armed to the teeth make neither a good army nor a national defense.
— from The Art of War by Jomini, Antoine Henri, baron de

The obligation to “Universal Love or Benevolence” he exhibits as follows:— “If there be a natural and necessary difference between Good and Evil: and that which is Good is fit and reasonable, and that which is Evil is unreasonable, to be done: and that which is the Greatest Good is always the most fit and reasonable to be chosen: then ... every rational creature ought in its sphere and station, according to its respective powers and faculties, to do all the Good it can to its fellow-creatures: to which end, universal Love and Benevolence is plainly the most certain, direct, and effectual means.”
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick

I was a fresh new journalist, and needed a nom de guerre; so I confiscated the ancient mariner's discarded one, and have done my best to make it remain what it was in his hands—a sign and symbol and warrant that whatever is found in its company may be gambled on as being the petrified truth; how I have succeeded, it would not be modest in me to say.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain

"Thou sayest well, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "but remember all times are not alike nor do they always run the same way; and these things the vulgar commonly call omens, which are not based upon any natural reason, will by him who is wise be esteemed and reckoned happy accidents merely.
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Mr. Henry Lennox added a new and not disagreeable element to the course of the household life by his frequent presence.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

A temperate current of blood ran orderly through her veins in all months of the year, and in all critical moments both of the day and night alike; nor did she superinduce the least heat into her humours from the manual effervescencies of devotional tracts, which having little or no meaning in them, nature is oft-times obliged to find one——And as for my father’s example! ’twas so far from being either aiding or abetting thereunto, that ’twas the whole business of his life, to keep all fancies of that kind out of her head——Nature had done her part, to have spared him this trouble; and what was not a little inconsistent, my father knew it——
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

All which fore-reading, and his act of birth Fate's warrant that I read his life aright; To save his country from his mother's fate, I gave abroad that he had died with her His being slew; with midnight secrecy I had him carried to a lonely tower Hewn from the mountain-barriers of the realm, And under strict anathema of death Guarded from men's inquisitive approach, Save from the trusty few one needs must trust; Who while his fasten'd body they provide With salutary garb and nourishment, Instruct his soul in what no soul may miss Of holy faith, and in such other lore As may solace his life-imprisonment, And tame perhaps the Savage prophesied Toward such a trial as I aim at now, And now demand your special hearing to.
— from Life Is a Dream by Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Mr. Warrington somehow had Miss Theo for a neighbour, and no doubt passed a pleasant evening beside her.
— from The Virginians by William Makepeace Thackeray

the grossest and most insidious [256] misrepresentations of them be made, by giving one side only of a subject, and that, too, in such exaggerated and indecent terms as could scarcely be applied to a Nero, a notorious defaulter, or even to a common pickpocket."
— from With Americans of Past and Present Days by J. J. (Jean Jules) Jusserand

He'd have known how it was: For, you see, in groping For the secret spring of that panel, hoping And fearing as nearer and nearer drew The search of retainers, why, out she blew The tell-tale taper; and seeing this chest, Would hide her a minute in it, mayhap,
— from The Poems of Madison Cawein, Volume 1 (of 5) Lyrics and old world idylls by Madison Julius Cawein

The destinies of men and nations are not decided primarily by big guns, or mighty armies, and until we, as a nation, get back to a realization of the necessity of God, the war will drag on.
— from The Pomp of Yesterday by Joseph Hocking

M. Dumas reconnaît lui-même que nous y avons reçu, dès le 29 juillet, c'est-à-dire dès le jour même de notre installation, MM. de Sémonville, d'Argout et de Vitrolles, qui venaient conférer avec nous au nom de Charles X; il reconnaît également que, quatre ou cinq jours plus tard, nous avons reçu M. de Sussy, qui voulait déposer entre nos mains le décret royal rapportant les ordonnances; il reconnaît, enfin, que nous avons reçu une députation républicaine présidée par M. Hubert.
— from My Memoirs, Vol. IV, 1830 to 1831 by Alexandre Dumas

There is not a comfortable hotel in the city, and while it is of course possible for people to survive present conditions they are nevertheless a national disgrace.
— from Modern India by William Eleroy Curtis

Then when by long familiarity the understanding does begin to grasp a name, a new denomination is found for an old complaint, or something fresh is manufactured out of the weakness of the human body.
— from The Life of a Celebrated Buccaneer A Page of Past History for the Use of the Children of To-day by Richard Clynton

" Another point of great importance to the right comprehension of the theory, is, that while every species must needs have some adaptive advantageous characters to which it owes its preservation by selection, it may possess any number of others which are neither advantageous nor disadvantageous, but indifferent, or even slightly disadvantageous.
— from Darwiniana : Essays — Volume 02 by Thomas Henry Huxley

Admirable, new; and never did any one make anything more beautiful.
— from The Learned Women by Molière

There are too many new révues to be talked about, and too much golf to be played, [Pg 294] and new American nigger dances to be learned.—Come, come, Mordryn!
— from The Career of Katherine Bush by Elinor Glyn