When luck-bringing Hermes came, swift messenger from my father the Son of Cronos and the other Sons of Heaven, bidding me come back from Erebus that you might see me with your eyes and so cease from your anger and fearful wrath against the gods, I sprang up at once for joy; but he secretly put in my mouth sweet food, a pomegranate seed, and forced me to taste against my will.
— from Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica by Hesiod

But sometimes, once in many days, or perchance in many months, she felt an eye—a human eye—upon the ignominious brand, that seemed to give a momentary relief, as if half of her [100] agony were shared.
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

What woman can be doomed to pine In misery more sore than mine, Whose hopeless days must still be spent In grief that ends not and lament?
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

[government profit in manufacturing money] seigniorage.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget

“There are precedents, I may mention Schwarzenberg.”
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

That our peace is not to be placed in men "My Son, if thou set thy peace on any person because thou hast high opinion of him, and art familiar with him, thou shalt be unstable and entangled.
— from The Imitation of Christ by à Kempis Thomas

"It would be a great pity if Mr. Moxlow should be so unfortunate as to make a fool of himself!"
— from The Just and the Unjust by Vaughan Kester

Perhaps I might meet strength with strength, but I am powerless against those I pity.
— from The Lily of the Valley by Honoré de Balzac

As usual Harry and I had dinner together, and after he had gone out to Richmond, I sat by the open window which looked upon the towing-path beside the Thames, and with my pipe in my mouth, scanned the day’s news.
— from The Stretton Street Affair by William Le Queux

The longer we sat so, the more deadly still that stillness got to be; and when the wind began to moan around the house presently, it made me sick and miserable, and I wished I had been brave enough to be a coward this time, for indeed it is no proper shame to be afraid of ghosts, seeing how helpless the living are in their hands.
— from Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc — Volume 1 by Mark Twain

Perhaps it makes me seem to you a bit of a fool?"
— from Far to Seek A Romance of England and India by Maud Diver