“Faithfulness is to the emotional life what consistency is to the life of the intellect—simply a confession of failure.”

“And at last he got to the mines, and he was condemned to stay there for life--for life, just for writing a good, noble, splendid book.”

— Edith Nesbit《The Railway Children》

“The Soul is brought by the Truth to a knowledge of the Heavenly Life (Coelia), and is led, through repentance, to seek forgiveness and to desire a holier life.”

— Edmund Spenser《Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I》

“DEAR DICK, At what time of life may a man think himself exempted from the necessity of sacrificing his repose to the punctilios of a contemptible world?”

— Tobias Smollett《The Expedition of Humphry Clinker》

“In any case such a monster must of necessity be in our scheme of things an anomaly and an intruder, whose extirpation forms a primary duty with every man not an enemy to the world's life, health, and sanity.”

— H. P. Lovecraft《The Shunned House》

“It is better to honor a good man in life than to worship him after he is dead.”

— José Rizal《Rizal's own story of his life》

“She had been deeply impressed with the idea of French spies at some time in her life; and the notion could never be fairly eradicated, but sprang up again from time to time.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell《Cranford》

“I have thought since of the wonderful goodness of God to me in preserving me in the use of my reason and senses in that distressed time, that I did not use wicked and violent means to end my own miserable life.”

— Mary Rowlandson《Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson》

“The other victims were apathetic or broken down with misery; but Mrs Mothersole was, as in life so in death, of a very different temper.”

— M. R. James《Ghost Stories of an Antiquary》

“Time and time again he tried for the snow-white throat, where life bubbled near to the surface, and each time and every time Spitz slashed him and got away.”

— Jack London《The Call of the Wild》

“As for yourself, death shall come to you from the sea, and your life shall ebb away very gently when you are full of years and peace of mind, and your people shall bless you.”

— Homer《Odyssey》

“Shut in and morbid as his life had been, Colin had more imagination than she had and at least he had spent a good deal of time looking at wonderful books and pictures.”

— Frances Hodgson Burnett《The Secret Garden》

“But here was a man who had never done anything but good in his life, and was at the bar of justice charged with crime merely because some cold-blooded mercenaries thought he was interfering with their business!”

— Arthur Cheney Train《By Advice of Counsel》