200 When I was yet a child, no childish play To me was pleasing, all my mind was set Serious to learn and know, and thence to do What might be publick good; my self I thought Born to that end, born to promote all truth, All righteous things: therefore above my years, The Law of God I read, and found it sweet, Made it my whole delight, and in it grew To such perfection, that e're yet my age Had measur'd twice six years, at our great Feast 210 I went into the Temple, there to hear The Teachers of our Law, and to propose What might improve my knowledge or their own; And was admir'd by all, yet this not all To which my Spirit aspir'd, victorious deeds Flam'd in my heart, heroic acts, one while To rescue Israel from the Roman yoke, Thence to subdue and quell o're all the earth Brute violence and proud Tyrannick pow'r, Till truth were freed, and equity restor'd: 220 Yet held it more humane, more heavenly first By winning words to conquer willing hearts, And make perswasion do the work of fear; At least to try, and teach the erring Soul Not wilfully mis-doing, but unware Misled: the stubborn only to subdue.
— from The Poetical Works of John Milton by John Milton

DEAR SIR:—Your letter asking definite endorsement to your translation of my "Leaves of Grass" into Russian is just received, and I hasten to answer it.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

Then the unhappy girl heard the people moving, the pikes clashing, and a freezing voice saying to her,—“Bohemian wench, on the day when it shall seem good to our lord the king, at the hour of noon, you will be taken in a tumbrel, in your shift, with bare feet, and a rope about your neck, before the grand portal of Notre-Dame, and you will there make an apology with a wax torch of the weight of two pounds in your hand, and thence you will be conducted to the Place de Grève, where you will be hanged and strangled on the town gibbet; and likewise your goat; and you will pay to the official three lions of gold, in reparation of the crimes by you committed and by you confessed, of sorcery and magic, debauchery and murder, upon the person of the Sieur Phoebus de Châteaupers.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

“The French,” said he, “have rejected me once, and I am far from bearing them ill-will on that account, for I would reject myself now if I were what I was then; but with their love of genius I reckon on a better reception this time.”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

if your honour did but know how I rejoice to see—Blessed be his holy name, that made me the humble instrument—But as for the lucre of gain, I renounce it—I have done no more than my duty—No more than I would have done for the most worthless of my fellow-creatures—No more than I would have done for captain Lismahago, or Archy Macalpine, or any sinner upon earth—But for your worship, I would go through fire as well as water’—‘I do believe it, Humphry (said the ‘squire); but as you think it was your duty to save my life at the hazard of your own, I think it is mine to express the sense I have of your extraordinary fidelity and attachment—I insist upon your receiving this small token of my gratitude; but don’t imagine that I look upon this as an adequate recompence for the service you have done me—I have determined to settle thirty pounds a-year upon you for life; and I desire these gentlemen will bear witness to this my intention, of which I have a memorandum in my pocketbook.’
— from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. (Tobias) Smollett

On a hill which commands the city, stands the state-house, called the capitol, surrounded by a newly laid out garden; it reminds one of the Maison Quarrée, at Nismes in France.
— from Travels Through North America, During the Years 1825 and 1826. v. 1-2 by Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Bernhard

The Latin of the fourth period and the Greek agree in retaining, in many cases, the Latin or Greek inflexions rather than adopting the English ones; in other words, they agree in being but imperfectly incorporated .
— from The English Language by R. G. (Robert Gordon) Latham

The hand of God unclasped the book, And oped its leaves of glory; I read, with awed and reverent look, Creation’s wondrous story.
— from Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXIV, No. 1, January 1849 by Various

The love of God is raised above the power of time.
— from Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V) by Alexander Maclaren

Therefore, above my years, The Law of God I read, and found it sweet; Made it my whole delight, and in it grew To such perfection that, ere yet my age Had measured twice six years, at our great Feast 210 I went into the Temple, there to hear The teachers of our Law, and to propose What might improve my knowledge or their own, And was admired by all.
— from Paradise Regained by John Milton

His eyes moved from the jutting sign-board at the corner, announcing Gentlemen's Libraries Purchased , to the legend that ran above the window, blazoned in letters of gold: Isaac Rickman: New & Second-Hand Bookseller.
— from The Divine Fire by May Sinclair

If it can be--if the plain laws of God, in respect to marriage and religious instruction and many other blessings, of which chattelized man is plundered, can be innocently violated--why credit any longer the assertion of the Bible, that "sin is the transgression of the law?"--why not get a new definition of sin?
— from The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 2 of 4 by American Anti-Slavery Society

“The law of God in revelation sends the Baptist down into the waters of immersion; 350 when it is accomplished, the equally imperative law of God in nature brings him safely out.”
— from A Bible History of Baptism by Samuel J. (Samuel John) Baird