Just think, as late as November 1880, Bismarck sent a circular to the professional consuls of the German Empire, warning them of "a lamentable lack of reliability with regard to German shipments inter alia , apparent both as to quality and quantity;" now-a-days we hear comparatively little of German carelessness and dishonesty in trade.
— from Bushido, the Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe

The first and last lesson of religion is, "The things that are seen, are temporal; the things that are unseen, are eternal."
— from Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson

If his enthusiasm for his subject is not such as to give him a natural impulse for dramatic action, it will avail nothing to furnish him with a long list of rules.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by J. Berg (Joseph Berg) Esenwein

In the prosecution of which design he came first to Poictiers, where, as he studied and profited very much, he saw that the scholars were oftentimes at leisure and knew not how to bestow their time, which moved him to take such compassion on them, that one day he took from a long ledge of rocks, called there Passelourdin, a huge great stone, of about twelve fathom square and fourteen handfuls thick, and with great ease set it upon four pillars in the midst of a field, to no other end but that the said scholars, when they had nothing else to do, might pass their time in getting up on that stone, and feast it with store of gammons, pasties, and flagons, and carve their names upon it with a knife, in token of which deed till this hour the stone is called the lifted stone.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

Where the lines of print at last left off running into each other, I know, however, perfectly well.
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

If he is the first of modern political theorists, he is also the last of a long line of Renaissance theorists, who in turn inherit and transform the concepts of mediæval thought.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I never see a likelier lot of rats than what that first haul was.
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

At Madame ———'s, a literary lady of rank, the footman took the sugar in his fingers, and threw it into my coffee.
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson Abridged and edited, with an introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood by James Boswell

Being mounted to the top, and that they had placed it in a little lodge of roses which they held ready, presently came the young men, which strewed many flowers of sundry kinds, wherewith they filled the temple both within and without.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

The resources of the enemy and his numerical strength were far inferior to ours; but as an offset to this, we had a vast territory, with a population hostile to the government, to garrison, and long lines of river and railroad communications to protect, to enable us to supply the operating armies.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant

"'Tis a pretty sight," Harry continued, reading from his brother's journal, "to see a long line of red coats threading through the woods or taking their ground after the march.
— from Boys and Girls from Thackeray by Kate Dickinson Sweetser

"Well," asked Lola, seating herself on a little ledge of rock where Charlie had spread his handkerchief.
— from Overland Tales by Josephine Clifford

We went out of doors, upon the narrow green plateau in front of the [Pg 113] house, and then we recognised where we were—standing at the extreme end of a peninsula, with a long line of rocks running out still further into the sea.
— from An Unsentimental Journey through Cornwall by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

If you and Mr. Banks will come down to the camp, you’ll see the sort I’m having cut out, and a livelier lot of “ragers” I haven’t seen for many a day; not since I was at Mr. Selmore’s Mallee Meadows.
— from A Colonial Reformer, Vol. 2 (of 3) by Rolf Boldrewood

Terry held the plane down to a steady speed, hour after hour, only changing the monotony by diving to a lower level or rising to greater heights.
— from On Adventure Island by Bess Moyer

It was to be regarded more as the foundation upon which a complete system of defences could be built, and as a last line of resistance à outrance .
— from The Australian Victories in France in 1918 by Monash, John, Sir

His name was Julius Cæsar and he came from a long line of Roman noblemen which ran back so far into history that it not only reached beyond the beginning of Rome itself, but was believed to have sprung from the goddess, Venus.
— from A Treasury of Heroes and Heroines A Record of High Endeavour and Strange Adventure from 500 B.C. to 1920 A.D. by Clayton Edwards

[Gen. 6:5] Therefore the attempt to establish or defend divine order with human reason, unless that reason has previously been established and enlightened by faith, is just as futile as if I would throw light upon the sun with a lightless lantern, or rest a rock upon a reed.
— from Works of Martin Luther, with Introductions and Notes (Volume I) by Martin Luther

So, I say to Mr. Talmage, as I said to Mr. Morey: If you will depend a little less on refraction, and a little more on reflection, you will see that the whole story is a barbaric myth and foolish fable.
— from The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Complete Contents Dresden Edition—Twelve Volumes by Robert Green Ingersoll

The Prince also shook hands with a long line of returned men.
— from Down Under with the Prince by Everard Cotes