They had plenty of opportunities when they were young, at school, in debating clubs to get rid of their self-consciousness and to acquire ease and facility in public speaking, but they always shrank from every opportunity, because they were timid, or felt that somebody else could handle the debate or questions better.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

Clark, November 15, 1805] November 15th Friday 1805 Rained all the last night, this morning it became Calm and fair, I preposed Setting out, and ordered the Canoes Repared and loaded; before we could load our canoes the wind Sudenly Sprung up from the S. E and blew with Such violence, that we could not proceed in Safty with the loading.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

If it resembles a flute, it portends something 58 unfavourable respecting music; if it appears in the parts of the signs referred to the secret members, something respecting lewdness of manners; something respecting wit and learning, if they form a triangular or quadrangular figure with the position of some of the fixed stars; and that some one will be poisoned, if they appear in the head of either the northern or the southern serpent.
— from The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6) by the Elder Pliny

A fault in public speakers that is as pernicious as it is common is that they try to think of the succeeding sentence while still uttering the former, and in this way their concentration trails off; in consequence, they start their sentences strongly and end them weakly.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by J. Berg (Joseph Berg) Esenwein

Alyosha murmured, crossing himself, and falling into peaceful sleep.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

It is true that the antiscorbutic factor is peculiarly sensitive to drying , but there are exceptions to this rule, so that it is incorrect to state, as does the British Report of the Medical Research Committee, that “it may be regarded as an axiom that dry or dried foodstuffs will not prevent scurvy.”
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess

10, where he says, The laws which have been hitherto mentioned, i.e. the laws of nature, do bind men absolutely, even as they are men, although they have never any settled fellowship, never any solemn agreement amongst themselves what to do, or not to do: but forasmuch as we are not by ourselves sufficient to furnish ourselves with competent store of things, needful for such a life as our nature doth desire, a life fit for the dignity of man; therefore to supply those defects and imperfections which are in us, as living single and solely by ourselves, we are naturally induced to seek communion and fellowship with others: this was the cause of men's uniting themselves at first in politic societies.
— from Second Treatise of Government by John Locke

"No, they will not freeze and fall into pieces," said the mother, "but they will be very cold, and be obliged to sit all day in a dark, gloomy room, while we shall be flying about in foreign lands, where there are blooming flowers and warm sunshine.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

17: 'In this conviction (that what is reasonable is actual, and what is actual is reasonable) stands every plain man, as well as the philosopher; and from it philosophy starts in the study both of the spiritual and [Pg 384] of the natural universe——The great thing however is, in the show of the temporal and the transient to recognise the substance which is immanent and the eternal which is present.
— from The Logic of Hegel by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

" [152] In the following extract from an article written by Mr Bradlaugh in January 1884 upon "The Attitude of Freethought in Politics," allusion is made to an interesting conversation held with Gambetta:—"My personal attitude as a Freethinker in politics," said Mr Bradlaugh, "was the subject of some hostile discussion in France about four years ago, when the partisans of M. Jules Ferry were rigorously and, as I thought, harshly, enforcing the laws against the clerical orders.
— from Charles Bradlaugh: a Record of His Life and Work, Volume 1 (of 2) With an Account of his Parliamentary Struggle, Politics and Teachings. Seventh Edition by Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner

Sunshine and water equally with the earth are factors in production, so with the food and clothes of the workers, and the transmission of knowledge.
— from What Shall We Do? by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

—The propagation of the walnut in the natural way, or by seed, is exceedingly simple, for the nuts grow readily and freely if planted soon after they are ripe, or any time before they become old and the kernels shriveled.
— from The Nut Culturist A Treatise on Propogation, Planting, and Cultivation of Nut Bearing Trees and Shrubs Adapted to the Climate of the United States by Andrew S. (Andrew Samuel) Fuller

o preserve their Umbrellas, we may wish them a hearty farewell, hoping they may—long live to use these promoters of comfort and of health, and that they may always be as well shielded by fate from the metaphorical tempests of life, as they are from its physical storms by a good modern Umbrella.
— from Umbrellas and Their History by William Sangster

If Van is a fool, I prefer simpletons to wiseacres.
— from Kitty's Class Day and Other Stories by Louisa May Alcott

So all over the Plain by the sight of the steeple, the Plain high and low, to Salisbury, by night; but before I come to the town, I saw a great fortification, and there 'light, and to it and in it; and find it prodigious, so as to frighten me to be in it all alone at that time of night, it being dark.
— from Diary of Samuel Pepys — Volume 66: June/July 1668 by Samuel Pepys

If mankind were to act in accordance with the wishes of visionaries, and those who are prone to scientific credulity, and who look upon themselves as philanthropic philosophers, we should speedily be reduced to the unenviable condition of the Frenchman’s horse; for to some, animal food is pernicious, salt is in some respects poisonous, water is to be discarded as worse than useless, stimulants in the hour of sickness are to be avoided, and are never to be touched; vegetables are mere woody fibre or starch-cells.
— from The History of Salt With Observations on the Geographical Distribution, Geological Formation, and Medicinal and Dietetic Properties by Evan Martlett Boddy

Take pieces of this dough and form into potato shape.
— from Candy-Making at Home Two hundred ways to make candy with home flavors and professional finish by Mary M.‏ (Mary Mason) Wright