He was rather ostentatious in his preference of the writings of Mr Boz; would walk through the streets so absorbed in them that he all but ran against Miss Jenkyns; and though his apologies were earnest and sincere, and though he did not, in fact, do more than startle her and himself, she owned to me she had rather he had knocked her down, if he had only been reading a higher style of literature.
— from Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

483 For not only does it soften the harsh imperiousness of censure, but also, by reminding a man of former noble deeds, implants a desire to emulate his former self in the person who is ashamed of what is low, and makes himself his own exemplar for better things.
— from Plutarch's Morals by Plutarch

Of all impositions, that on land, or real taxation, has always been regarded as most advantageous in countries where more attention is paid to what the tax will produce, and to the certainty of recovering the product, than to securing the least discomfort for the people.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Already am I less alone; unconscious companions and brethren rove around me; their warm breath toucheth my soul.”
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

And these jolted dreams were never perfect to him afterward, but remained a mass of blurred shapes.
— from The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War by Stephen Crane

The beings of the mind are not of clay; Essentially immortal, they create And multiply in us a brighter ray And more beloved existence: that which Fate Prohibits to dull life, in this our state Of mortal bondage, by these spirits supplied, First exiles, then replaces what we hate; Watering the heart whose early flowers have died,
— from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

And it should be remembered that mankind in its entirety, a very small part alone excepted, has always been rude, and must remain so, since the large amount of bodily toil, which for the race as a whole is inevitable, leaves no time for mental culture.
— from The Basis of Morality by Arthur Schopenhauer

Hugh did with all his heart desire to base his life upon some [Pg 141] impersonal unquestionable certainty; and where a more submissive mind might have reposed, as a disciple, upon the strength of a master, Hugh required to repose upon something august, age-long, overpowering, a great moving force which could not be too closely or precisely interrogated, but which was a living and breathing reality, a mass of corporate experience, in spite of the inconsistencies and irrationalities which must beset any system which has built up a logical and scientific creed in eras when neither logic nor science were fully understood.
— from Hugh: Memoirs of a Brother by Arthur Christopher Benson

Our hero retires thinking of Princess Erika, to be aroused by robbers and murderers, who are in collusion with Juffrouw Laps 225 Chapter XXVII Walter alone with a pious lady, or Juffrouw Laps on the war-path 240
— from Walter Pieterse: A Story of Holland by Multatuli

Yet it was not her pride that had kept her from making friends, but merely the incompatibility of mental temperament, which builds the barrier not so much between education and ignorance, as between refinement and materialism, between romance and commonplace.
— from The Nebuly Coat by John Meade Falkner

When a man is dying they put basil leaves and boiled rice and milk in his mouth, and a little piece of gold, or if they have not got gold they put a rupee in his mouth and take it out again.
— from The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 2 by R. V. (Robert Vane) Russell

The Italian artists, Bazzi, Raphael, and Michael Angelo, are named as examples in this connection.
— from Humanistic Studies of the University of Kansas, Vol. 1 by Pearl Hogrefe

To-morrow, nay, in an hour, the sorrow would resume its violence; now, in this night of coolness and melody, there was just a brief rest, a moment of annihilation, almost a sense of wistful well-being.
— from The Tour: A Story of Ancient Egypt by Louis Couperus

I can promise you a big reward, and much fame if we catch them.
— from Tom Swift and His Great Searchlight; or, on the border for Uncle Sam by Victor Appleton

"And then the old cat humped her back, and grinned till I saw every tooth in her head, and came flying at me,—claws spread, and tail as big round as my arm.
— from Toto's Merry Winter by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards