The Master said, 'The determined scholar and the man of virtue will not seek to live at the expense of injuring their virtue.
— from The Analects of Confucius (from the Chinese Classics) by Confucius

Let me add, however, that as long as the empire of the Roman People maintained itself by acts of service, not of oppression, wars were waged in the interest of our allies or to safeguard our supremacy; the end of our wars was marked by acts of clemency or by only a necessary degree of severity; the senate was a haven of refuge for kings, tribes, and nations; 27 and the highest ambition of our magistrates and generals was to defend our provinces and allies with justice and honour.
— from De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero

She rose in her chair as far as she could and, looking at the elder, clasped her hands before him, but could not restrain herself and broke into laughter.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

On the right and left, at the end of the pipe, were two blocks, by means of which the iron-pointed beam, which lay in the pipe, was moved.
— from The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio

The Britisher's moves are above the line and the enemy's below it.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney

He was no sooner gone, than I began to consider my situation with great uneasiness, and revolved all the schemes my imagination could suggest, in order to choose and pursue some one that would procure me bread; for it is impossible to express the pangs I felt, when I reflected on the miserable dependence in which I lived at the expense of a poor barber's boy, My pride took the alarm, and having no hopes of succeeding at the Navy Office, I came to a resolution of enlisting in the foot-guards next day, be the event what it would.
— from The Adventures of Roderick Random by T. (Tobias) Smollett

The reader of this Dictionary will see to which part of speech the English word belongs, by looking at the ending of the Esperanto translation of the word.
— from English-Esperanto Dictionary by J. C. (John Charles) O'Connor

Pour encourager les autres —To encourage the rest to go and do likewise.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

A deacon of that city had published a libel against the emperor.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

—Yo no soy iconoclasta, aunque prefiero la destrucción de todas las imágenes a esta exhibición de chocarrerías de que me ocupo—continuó el joven.—Al ver esto, es lícito 15 defender que el culto debe recobrar la sencillez augusta de los antiguos tiempos; pero no: no se renuncie al auxilio admirable que las artes todas, empezando
— from Doña Perfecta by Benito Pérez Galdós

When he first came he was seen near to the sun, where it had just set, and he gave a side look at the earth.
— from The Book of One Syllable by Esther Bakewell

"I don't see why he shouldn't eat a bit of dinner here," said Mr. Neefit, as soon as his pipe was lighted after their early dinner.
— from Ralph the Heir by Anthony Trollope

We kept jolting on for so long a time through the twilight lanes, and the evening darkened so rapidly, that I began to grow frightened.
— from The Argosy Vol. 51, No. 1, January, 1891 by Various

The occasional obscurities, which had risen from an imperfect control over the resources of his native language, had almost wholly disappeared, together with that worse defect of arbitrary and illogical phrases, at once hackneyed and fantastic, which hold so distinguished a place in the technique of ordinary poetry, and will, more or less, alloy the earlier poems of the truest genius, unless the attention has been specially directed to their worthlessness and incongruity
— from Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The shoots come out of the ground nearly full-sized, four to six inches in diameter, and are cut like asparagus to eat as a pickle or a comfit, or by boiling or stewing.
— from The Middle Kingdom, Volume 1 (of 2) A Survey of the Geography, Government, Literature, Social Life, Arts, and History of the Chinese Empire and its Inhabitants by S. Wells (Samuel Wells) Williams

There were markets where busy customers thronged to buy all sorts and kinds of doll eatables, turkeys and chickens the size of sparrows and humming-birds, yellow pumpkins as big as walnuts, red-cheeked apples like cranberries, cabbages fully as large as the end of your thumb, and freshly baked pies as big around as a penny.
— from The Wonderful Bed by Gertrude Knevels

After a year’s trial the superintendent comes to the conclusion that the law, as it now stands, is a failure, and recommends the enactment of other laws, and the erection of new institutions to enforce the present law, of which he says: “Instances of opposition on the part of the parents to the law, or the efforts of the agents, are extremely rare; but rather do they regard them as welcome visitors and valuable auxiliaries, their authority and suasion being earnestly solicited for the reformation of the child” ( p. 424).
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 23, April, 1876-September, 1876. A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science by Various

At length, at the end of April, he reported himself satisfied.
— from English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century Lectures Delivered at Oxford Easter Terms 1893-4 by James Anthony Froude

We now observe France and Germany vowed to undying hate because of iron mines in Lorraine, and the efforts of France to take the coal mines of Silesia from Germany, and give them to Poland, which is another name for French capitalism.
— from The Book of Life by Upton Sinclair

Flues four inches lower at the eye than the chimney will be slope enough.
— from Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce by E. R. Billings