We sometimes see men so absorbed in one object, that, although it be not present, they think they have it before them; when this is the case with a man who is not asleep, we say he is delirious or mad; nor are those persons who are inflamed with love, and who dream all night and all day about nothing but their mistress, or some woman, considered as less mad, for they are made objects of ridicule.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza

Mrs. Wainewright died, in giving him birth, at the early age of twenty-one, and an obituary notice in the Gentleman’s Magazine tells us of her ‘amiable disposition and numerous accomplishments,’ and adds somewhat quaintly that ‘she is supposed to have understood the writings of Mr. Locke as well as perhaps any person of either sex now living.’
— from Intentions by Oscar Wilde

Between the fashionable selections made in the Saloons of the Pompadours and Dubarrys, and Napoleon's preference for mere soldiers, there are many gradations, and the margin is wide enough to afford the least intelligent government means of making rational nominations; but, in all ages, human weaknesses will exercise an influence in one way or another, and artifice will often carry off the prize from modest or timid merit, which awaits a call for its services.
— from The Art of War by Jomini, Antoine Henri, baron de

Oppressed by the weight of the injustice and tyranny of ages, she knew nothing except to suffer in silence; and so degraded was she by generations of slavish submission, that she possessed not even the moral courage to stand by those of her own sex who dared rebel and demand a new dispensation.
— from The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years by Ida Husted Harper

For if the ruler of drinkers be himself young and drunken, and not over-wise, only by some special good fortune will he be saved from doing some great evil.
— from Laws by Plato

Battles, revolutions, pestilence, famine and death, are never the effect of those natural causes, which we experience.
— from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume

We was reckoning on getting a divorce about now, and letting the kids well, we didn't know what we would do with the kids.
— from Pollyanna by Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter

The eyes of our brothers are dull, and never do they look one another in the eyes.
— from Anthem by Ayn Rand

Neither is there the slightest reason why Mrs Nickleby should have expressed surprise when, candles being at length brought in, Kate’s bright eyes were unable to bear the light which obliged her to avert her face, and even to leave the room for some short time; because, when one has sat in the dark so long, candles are dazzling, and nothing can be more strictly natural than that such results should be produced, as all well-informed young people know.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

It is the same that coldly illuminates his face as he bends over a bird, a mouse, or a butterfly, which, in pursuance of some experiment, he has killed by the perfume of a flower; a look as deep as Nature itself, but without Nature's warmth of love.
— from Mosses from an Old Manse, and Other Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne

There was in his camp a man named [135] Harlan, an American adventurer, now a doctor and now a general, who was ready to take any kind of service with any one disposed to pay him, and to do any kind of work at the instance of his master.
— from History of the War in Afghanistan, Vol. 1 (of 3) Third Edition by Kaye, John William, Sir

Many psychological theorists would uphold such a deceit as not only permissible, but even praise-worthy, if practiced for the furtherance of a good cause.
— from Ardath: The Story of a Dead Self by Marie Corelli

The Rhenus and Danubius are near, and uncounted Germanic races dwell there in old and unbroken strength; we, on the contrary, are like an advanced outpost, a forlorn hope, a single block of rock, worn away by the envious elements.
— from A Struggle for Rome, v. 2 by Felix Dahn

For he removed a picture that hung on the wall and disclosed a number of wires.
— from The Boy Scouts In Russia by John Blaine

There warn’t much in, as old Tipsy says, but I didn’t know no more till I found myself here, feeling sick as a dog, and not able to move, for I was lying awkward-like on my back, with some of them thin rotan canes tied round my arms and legs so tight that it was only at times I knowed I had any arms and legs at all.”
— from Trapped by Malays: A Tale of Bayonet and Kris by George Manville Fenn

I believe a few hoursʼ progress would have brought us to the vicinity of the hills and into the country of the Dyaks; and although disappointed at not being allowed to proceed thither, I nevertheless comfort myself that we have penetrated a [ 31 ] hundred miles up a Borneon river hitherto unknown—a river likewise (as far as we have yet examined it) admirably calculated for the purposes of navigation and trade, and which may at some future period become of importance not only to the trade of our settlement of Singapore, but even to the commercial interests of Great Britain.
— from The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido For the Suppression of Piracy by Rajah of Sarawak James

When I refused it, Dr. Perrin came again, and we fought the matter over for the better part of a day and night.
— from Sylvia's Marriage: A Novel by Upton Sinclair

Under such conditions excessive ardour may be as dangerous as neglect.
— from Motherhood and the Relationships of the Sexes by C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine) Hartley

I should like a little room to fit up, and to have tea with my friends, and debates, and discussions, and new ideas.
— from Amethyst: The Story of a Beauty by Christabel R. (Christabel Rose) Coleridge

And I know that my Hester died of me; and day and night, asleep and awake, my soul abides in her remembrance.
— from The Plays of W. E. Henley and R. L. Stevenson by William Ernest Henley