The masses [145] are also more prone even than Parliaments to be led away by heterodox opinions, and to be swayed by vigorous ranting.
— from The Jewish State by Theodor Herzl

Pragmatism is willing to take anything, to follow either logic or the senses, and to count the humblest and most personal experiences.
— from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James

And, if you now desire new wars to wage, My skill I promise, and my pains engage.
— from The Aeneid by Virgil

For,” said he, “as flourishing a condition as we may appear to be in to foreigners, we labour under two mighty evils: a violent faction at home, and the danger of an invasion, by a most potent enemy, from abroad.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift

I answered, that I understood both very well: for although my proper employment had been to be surgeon or doctor to the ship, yet often, upon a pinch, I was forced to work like a common mariner.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift

Oh! to have lived two thousand years, with all my passion eating out my heart, and with my sin ever before me.
— from She by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

<a miei primi e a mia parte, si` che per due fiate li dispersi>>.
— from Divina Commedia di Dante: Inferno by Dante Alighieri

Would that I had been killed on the day when the Trojans were pressing me so sorely about the dead body of Achilles, for then I should have had due burial and the Achaeans would have honoured my name; but now it seems that I shall come to a most pitiable end.
— from The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original by Homer

First, by sending back to the country a part of those materials wrought up and manufactured; in which case, their price is augmented by the wages of the workmen, and the profits of their masters or immediate employers; secondly, by sending to it a part both of the rude and manufactured produce, either of other countries, or of distant parts of the same country, imported into the town; in which case, too, the original price of those goods is augmented by the wages of the carriers or sailors, and by the profits of the merchants who employ them.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Merely because they had so persistently denied him sleep—those thoughts of Old Tom and his cherished tin box and the boy's own unmistakable poise and surety of self which even the shuffling boots and ragged clothes had only made the more impressive—merely because they persisted in endless procession through his brain, while he rolled and tossed and re-arranged the pillow, he had grown more and more peevishly eager to discount and discredit them, during the darkness.
— from Then I'll Come Back to You by Larry Evans

In brief, there began to be promulgated at this early date the salutary principle that the various municipalities or provinces were to enjoy home rule in all purely local matters, while of course remaining subject to the Governor in everything relating to the general welfare of the island; and also that the island was to enjoy home rule in all matters pertaining exclusively to it, while subject and loyal to the Crown in everything affecting the general welfare and integrity of the Spanish kingdom and its colonial empire.
— from The History of Cuba, vol. 1 by Willis Fletcher Johnson

“What do you mean?” asked Mrs. Pasmer eagerly.
— from April Hopes by William Dean Howells

The main body of the Dutch, having cleared a way for themselves by shooting all the Zulus who opposed them, rode on at a gallop till they had cleared the ravine and bushy ground near Dingaan’s kraal, and obtained a position in the plains where the Zulus dared not follow them, even had the Dutch waited for them; but finding that the Zulus were a more powerful enemy than they had imagined, and hearing from those of their party who had followed Uys that he, his son, and one or two others had been killed, amongst whom Hans was stated to be, the farmers became disheartened, and returned at once to their head-quarters.
— from Adventures of Hans Sterk: The South African Hunter and Pioneer by Alfred W. (Alfred Wilks) Drayson

A more puzzling examination could not well have been essayed.
— from The Headsman; Or, The Abbaye des Vignerons by James Fenimore Cooper

Act of, as marriage, passage, etc. 84.
— from 1001 Questions and Answers on Orthography and Reading by Benjamin Adams Hathaway

A Roman camp was formed here in A.D. 43, and later it was fortified with a massive wall (of which the traces still survive), as befitted a military post equal in importance to Cirencester, Winchester, Chichester, and Colchester.
— from Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Gloucester [2nd ed.] A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Espicopal See by H. J. L. J. (Henri Jean Louis Joseph) Massé

The whole thing seemed the wildest phantasy, and, for a time, in doubting the reality of the Eurasian's work, I found myself doubting the evidence of my own senses and seriously wondering if this possessed witch-cat whose green eyes had moved like Satanic lanterns throughout the whole phantasmagoria, had any more palpable existence than the other strange things spoken of by the unscrupulous scientist.
— from The Green Eyes of Bâst by Sax Rohmer

This has a more perceptible elevation than the southern ridge, and in some places rises into bold heights.
— from The Conquest of Canada, Vol. 1 by George Warburton

John Sarrasin, the all-accomplished Prior, as the reward of his exertions, received from Philip the abbey of Saint Vaast, the richest and most powerful ecclesiastical establishment in the Netherlands.
— from The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Complete (1574-84) by John Lothrop Motley