An undue opinion of our own importance in the scale of creation is at the bottom of all our unwarrantable notions in this respect.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

Plato ordains in his Laws that he who has performed any signal and advantageous exploit in war may not be refused during the whole expedition, his age or ugliness notwithstanding, a kiss or any other amorous favour from any woman whatever.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

"Alas! my brother," replied Gelimer, "Heaven has declared against our unhappy nation.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

Sometimes a portion of our family would eat out of the skillet or pot, while some one else would eat from a tin plate held on the knees, and often using nothing but the hands with which to hold the food.
— from Up from Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington

The dead letter of religion must own itself dead, and drop piecemeal into dust, if the living spirit of religion, freed from its charnel-house, is to arise on us, new born of Heaven, and with new healing under its wings.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

Some melancholy reflections about the folly of destroying the native order of things and of undermining native authority as now prevailing.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

In the one instance, the dreamer, or enthusiast, being interested by an object usually not frivolous, imperceptibly loses sight of this object in a wilderness of deductions and suggestions issuing therefrom, until, at the conclusion of a day dream often replete with luxury , he finds the incitamentum , or first cause of his musings, entirely vanished and forgotten.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

At present he has in no respect greater power than any of us; nay, indeed, he has less; as we have lands and kingdoms to rule over, and he has nothing, and we are equally entitled by the udal right to the kingdom as he is himself.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

He asked of us no assistance, except the loan of some arms, ammunition, clothing, and camp-equipage.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

The same war party soon after made an onslaught upon ninety Hurons, working on the Isle of Orleans under French protection, slew six, and carried off the rest into captivity.
— from The Conquest of Canada, Vol. 1 by George Warburton

“Number seven is three days ahead of us, number eleven, six hours.
— from Dave Dashaway Around the World; or, A Young Yankee Aviator Among Many Nations by Roy Rockwood

Cardinal No. 6, an Englishman, demanded the reversion of the Archbishoprics of Canterbury and York, with the faculty of holding them together, and of unlimited non-residence.
— from The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales by Richard Garnett

Chop the meat, and pound it in a mortar till reduced to a paste; then roll it into a ball; make another of panada (No. 420), the same size, and another of udder (No. 421), taking care that these three balls be of the same size .
— from The Book of Household Management by Mrs. (Isabella Mary) Beeton

Youth in these matters governs maturity, and while men may develop their early impressions more systematically and find confirmations of them in various quarters, they will seldom look at the world afresh or use new categories in deciphering it.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

Before the Psi Upsilon Fraternity a poem was delivered by S.J. Pike , Esq., and an oration upon Nationality, by W.G. Prescott , Esq.
— from Harper's New Monthly Magazine No. XVI.—September, 1851—Vol. III. by Various

The following is the translation of her letter, given by Vander Hammen: "Great Lord: After kissing the earth Y.H. treads, that which this poor and miserable orphan wishes to make known to Y.H., Her Lord, is to tell you how grateful I am for the favour you have done to all of us, not only in giving liberty to Alhamet, our servant, but by sending him to give us news, that after the death of my father and the destruction of the Armada, my poor orphan brothers remained alive and in the power of Y.H., for which I pray to God to give Y.H. many years of life.
— from The Story of Don John of Austria by Luis Coloma

[22] In the reign of Anne, the House of Lords had resolved that, under the 23rd article of Union, no Scotch peer could he created a peer of Great Britain.
— from Critical and Historical Essays, Volume III (of 3) by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron