While property remains in the possession of the same person, whatever permanent taxes may have been imposed upon it, they have never been intended to diminish or take away any part of its capital value, but only some part of the revenue arising from it.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

By saving a part of it, as that part is, for the sake of the profit, immediately employed as a capital, either by himself or by some other person, the food, clothing, and lodging, which may be purchased with it, are necessarily reserved for the latter.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

I never perceived that a public officer in America was the less respected whilst he was in the discharge of his duties because his own merit was set off by no adventitious signs.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville

They used the broad smooth river as a canvas, and painted on it every imaginable dream of color, from the mottled daintinesses and delicacies of the opal, all the way up, through cumulative intensities, to blinding purple and crimson conflagrations which were enchanting to the eye, but sharply tried it at the same time.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain

Juli was willing to sell all her jewels, except a locket set with diamonds and emeralds which Basilio had given her, for this locket had a history: a nun, the daughter of Capitan Tiago, had given it to a leper, who, in return for professional treatment, had made a present of it to Basilio.
— from The Reign of Greed by José Rizal

The notion “illusion” has indicated many a false ideal, many a product of incoherent fancy.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross

On one side of the table is a piece of iron.
— from How it Works Dealing in simple language with steam, electricity, light, heat, sound, hydraulics, optics, etc., and with their applications to apparatus in common use by Archibald Williams

Indeed the actual phraseology of illuminized Freemasonry has now passed into the language of Socialism; thus the old formulæ of "the United States of Europe" and "the Universal Republic" have been adopted not only by Mrs. Besant and her followers 741 as the last word in modern thought, but have also reappeared as a brilliant inspiration under the pen of Mr. H.G. Wells in the slightly varied form of the "World State.
— from Secret Societies And Subversive Movements by Nesta Helen Webster

Where it is long, a part of it may generally be redeemed by paying a small fine.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Buddhism, a religion originating in India, in which Buddha, once a man, is worshipped, in which no beings are known with greater power than can be attained to by man, and according to which at death the soul migrates into anything from a deified human being to an elephant, a bird, a plant, a wall, a broom, or any piece of inorganic matter, was imported ready made into China and took the side of popular superstition and Taoism against the orthodox belief, finding that its power lay in the influence on the popular mind of its doctrine respecting a future state, in contrast to the indifference of Confucianism.
— from Myths and Legends of China by E. T. C. (Edward Theodore Chalmers) Werner

THE THEORY AND PRINCIPLES OF ILLUSTRATION.
— from A Handbook of Illustration by A. Horsley (Alfred Horsley) Hinton

There is in "David Copperfield" a passage of inimitable humour, where Mr. Micawber, enlarging on the pleasures of imprisonment for debt, apostrophizes the King's Bench Prison as being the place "where, for the first time in many revolving years, the overwhelming pressure of pecuniary liabilities was not proclaimed from day to day, by importunate voices declining to vacate the passage; where there was no knocker on the door for any creditor to appeal to; where personal service of process was not required, and detainers were lodged merely at the gate."
— from Life of Charles Dickens by Marzials, Frank T. (Frank Thomas), Sir

Now at first as I came to myself, and heard the voice of the Apostle discoursing of Jesus and of the life in Him, and of the joy and peace of it, being made conscious of my inward darkness and of the unattainable Light, I felt the burden of my miseries too great for me to bear.
— from Onesimus: Memoirs of a Disciple of St. Paul by Edwin Abbott Abbott

The Incidents grow out of the Subject, and are such as [are the most proper to excite Pity; for 1 which Reason the whole Narration has something in it very moving, notwithstanding the Author of it (whoever he was) has deliver'd it in such an abject Phrase and Poorness of Expression, that the quoting any part of it would look like a Design of turning it into Ridicule.
— from The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 With Translations and Index for the Series by Steele, Richard, Sir

“And I never, never heard of such a piece of impertinence in my life.
— from An Act in a Backwater by E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson

Making a point of this formality on your part, it becomes necessary to make a point of it on ours also; and I am therefore charged to return you those commissions, and to inform you, that bound to enforce respect to the order of things established by our Constitution, the President will issue no Exequatur to any consul or vice-consul, not directed to him in the usual form, after the party from whom it comes has been apprized that such should be the address.
— from The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 4 (of 9) Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private by Thomas Jefferson

Flask Walk , Hampstead, derived its name from “The Flask,” a picturesque old inn close by.
— from Names: and Their Meaning; A Book for the Curious by Leopold Wagner

"I'll have the money down this very day, and a promise of it before I go, or else I'll be off to Scriven and Co. at once."
— from The Forgery; or, Best Intentions. by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

On each side cheek of the carriage is formed, by curved planing, a circular segmental race, opening inward or toward each other, rectangular in cross section and into each of which is fitted a segmental block just filling it up, and occupying a portion of its length so as to slide easily up or downward through the whole range of the arc or segment.
— from Scientific American, Volume 22, No. 1, January 1, 1870 A Weekly Journal of Practical Information, Art, Science, Mechanics, Chemistry, and Manufactures. by Various