Nothing can take the place of an all-absorbing purpose; education can not, genius can not, talent can not, industry can not, will-power can not.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

56 Palæologus did not alight till he reached the bottom of the staircase: the pope advanced to the door of the apartment; refused his proffered genuflection; and, after a paternal embrace, conducted the emperor to a seat on his left hand.
— 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

Amongst an aristocratic people each caste has its own opinions, feelings, rights, manners, and modes of living.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

Utterly it is all altered: from King down to Parish Constable, all Authorities, Magistrates, Judges, persons that bore rule, have had, on the sudden, to alter themselves, so far as needful; or else, on the sudden, and not without violence, to be altered: a Patriot 'Executive Council of Ministers,' with a Patriot Danton in it, and then a whole Nation and National Convention, have taken care of that.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

These articles are cleverly manufactured and excellently set, and a practised eye can alone detect the imposition.—
— from The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical and Andecdotal by John Camden Hotten

Babbitt spoke well—and often—at these orgies of commercial righteousness about the “realtor's function as a seer of the future development of the community, and as a prophetic engineer clearing the pathway for inevitable changes”—which meant that a real-estate broker could make money by guessing which way the town would grow.
— from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

A figure like your father, Armed at point exactly, cap-à-pie, Appears before them, and with solemn march Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk’d By their oppress’d and fear-surprised eyes, Within his truncheon’s length; whilst they, distill’d Almost to jelly with the act of fear, Stand dumb, and speak not to him.
— from Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare

Neither should a freeman aim at attaining perfect execution [ cp. Arist.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

La Librada aguardó al Pinzón, el cual entró muy envuelto en su capote sin hablar palabra.
— from Doña Perfecta by Benito Pérez Galdós

Of pure reason which frames this ideal, there remains after the abstraction of all matter, i.e., knowledge of objects, nothing but the form, namely, the practical law of the universality of the maxims, and in conformity with this conception of reason in reference to a pure world of understanding as a possible efficient cause, that is a cause determining the will.
— from Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals by Immanuel Kant

He let go the skipper’s fist, however, the next moment and a puzzled expression came into his eyes as he glanced round occasionally, apparently in search of some one or other.
— from The Ghost Ship: A Mystery of the Sea by John C. (John Conroy) Hutcheson

Arnold, Dr. E. H. "Some Inexpensive Playground Apparatus," Bulletin No. 27, Playground Association of America and Playground Extension Committee of The Russell Sage Foundation.
— from A Catalogue of Play Equipment by Jean Lee Hunt

His wife left him no children, and he lives in a lonely house all alone; and poor enough company he must find himself.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 108, October, 1866 A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics by Various

One of their remarkable men ( not included in their Assembly of Notables) writes thus:― “‘To ascertain better and better what the will of the Eternal was and is with us, what the laws of the Eternal are, all Parliaments, Ecumenic Councils, Congresses, and other Collective Wisdoms, have had this for their object. . . . .
— from Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative; Vol. 3 of 3 Library Edition (1891), Containing Seven Essays not before Republished, and Various other Additions. by Herbert Spencer

Brunei's leaders are concerned that steadily increased integration in the world economy will undermine internal social cohesion although it became a more prominent player by serving as chairman for the 2000 APEC (Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation) forum.
— from The 2001 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency

The Consul, having scanned him through his green spectacles, drew a large sheet of thin printed paper from his portfolio, with the arms of France placed under a great petticoat at the top, and proceeded to fill up a request from his most Christian Majesty to all the authorities, both civil and military, of France, and also of all the allied "pays," "de laisser librement passer" Monsieur John Jorrocks, Chasseur and member of the Hont de Surrey, and plusieurs other Honts; and also, Monsieur Stubbs, native of Angleterre, going from Boulogne to Paris, and to give them aid and protection, "en cas de besoin," all of which Mr. Jorrocks —like many travellers before him—construed into a most flattering compliment and mark of respect, from his most Christian Majesty to himself.
— from Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities by Robert Smith Surtees

As a powerful electric current can render metals luminous, and reveal their essence by the color of their flame, so intense life and supreme joy can make the most simple mortal dazzlingly beautiful.
— from Amiel's Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel by Henri Frédéric Amiel

It does not follow, however, that because the Friends as a people eschew conformity to the world both in dress and speech, that there is a want of parental respect.
— from Country Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago Personal recollections and reminiscences of a sexagenarian by Canniff Haight

and undescribed 7,682 3,703 27 10 7 15 103,728 Artisans, &c. 25,930 13,885 5 0 1 10 81,053 766,074 Paupers 3,655 593 13 s. 2,761 Total expense for the Metropolis 626,604 Proximate Estimate of the Expense for the Total Number of Funerals in one Year, England and Wales 4,871,493 The above, which can only be submitted as a proximate estimate, certainly shows an amount of money annually thrown into the grave, at the expense of the living, which exceeded all previous anticipations; and yet, from the information derived from the inspection of collections of undertakers’ bills for funerals, I cannot but consider it an under rather than an over estimate, and that the actual expenses of interment in the metropolis would be found, on a closer inquiry, to be nearly a million per annum.
— from A supplementary report on the results of a special inquiry into the practice of interment in towns. by Edwin Chadwick