So I pray with all my heart that my grandmother may be born a grandmother again, and not through some cursed fate take birth as her luckless grandson.
— from The Hungry Stones, and Other Stories by Rabindranath Tagore

La bonne fortune et la mauvaise sont nécessaire à l'homme pour le rendre habile —Good fortune and bad are alike necessary to man in order to develop his capability.
— 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.

Vidar is able to do this because he wears those shoes for which stuff has been gathering in all ages, namely, the shreds of leather which are cut off to form the toes and heels of shoes, and it is on this account that those who would render a service to the Æsir should take care to throw such shreds away.
— from The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson; and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson by Snorri Sturluson

Civil judges, who have not this liberty, but are obliged to give a decisive sentence on some one side, are often at a loss how to determine, and are necessitated to proceed on the most frivolous reasons in the world.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

I feel, sirs, that I am rapidly drawing near death; a truce to jesting; let me have a confessor to confess me, and a notary to make my will; for in extremities like this, man must not trifle with his soul; and while the curate is confessing me let some one, I beg, go for the notary."
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

They wrought their evil deeds under all kinds of veils and excuses, and are now themselves effectually buried out of sight.
— from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri

On July 26, 1827, as already noted, the Cherokee adopted a constitution as a distinct and sovereign Nation.
— from Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology by James Mooney

H2 anchor Chapter IX: The Example Of The Americans Does Not Prove That A Democratic People Can Have No Aptitude And No Taste For Science, Literature, Or Art It must be acknowledged that amongst few of the civilized nations of our time have the higher sciences made less progress than in the United States; and in few have great artists, fine poets, or celebrated writers been more rare.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

But at times there seems to have arisen a feeling against this promiscuous extension of the citizen body, an expression of which is to be found in the law of Pericles—monous Athenaious einai tous ek duoin Athenaion gegonotas (Plutarch, Pericles); and at no time did the adopted citizen enjoy the full rights of citizenship—e.g. he might not be elected archon or to the office of priest (Telfy), although this prohibition did not extend to his children, if born of a citizen wife.
— from Laws by Plato

Then came the avalanche, and young nations, hitherto disregarded as serious opponents, rose in their strength, tore themselves free, rent province after province from the weak hands of an unprepared overlord, and are now threatening the capital of the Turkish Empire.
— from The Passing of the Turkish Empire in Europe by B. Granville (Bernard Granville) Baker

So, likewise, the most constant difference to be found between each of the terms of cooling to actual temperature is found to be 54 minutes, for by supposing each term to increase 54, we shall have 39, 93, 147, 201, 255, 309, 363, 417, 471, 525 minutes, and the continuation of the real time of this cooling is found, by the preceding experiments, to be 39, 93, 145, 196, 248, 308, 356, 415, 466, 522 minutes, which approaches also nearest to the first.
— from Buffon's Natural History. Volume 10 (of 10) Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c by Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de

It is not at all necessary that you should be able to provide as good a house and the furnishings thereof as that from which your wife comes.
— from The Young Man and the World by Albert J. (Albert Jeremiah) Beveridge

Harmonious discords of treble and base In strange combinations of guilt and of grace— O whose is the ear that can hear you aright, And note the dark providence mixt with the light?
— from My Life as an Author by Martin Farquhar Tupper

Meanwhile the gondolier had unconsciously suited his action to their word, and they had [95] come out upon the lagoon again, and now they were skirting the pretty green Giudecca shore, where scarlet poppies stood bright and motionless in the still sunshine.
— from A Venetian June by Anna Fuller

But I'll tell thee," said William, "how thou shalt cheat him, and gain thy own liberty too, if thou hast any mind to see thy own country again, and art not turned savage, and grown fond of living all thy days among heathens and savages.
— from The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton by Daniel Defoe

It would not be at all necessary that any exclusive rule should be adopted in the election of the new members; all that would be desirable would be that the leading persons in it should not be those of Brooks's or of White's, and that it should be seen as a sort of neutral ground, in which the violent party leaders on both sides would not be found to predominate.
— from Memoirs of the Court of George IV. 1820-1830 (Vol 1) From the Original Family Documents by Buckingham and Chandos, Richard Plantagenet Temple Nugent Brydges Chandos Grenville, Duke of