Never, I fear, will this nation and the colonies fall back upon their true centre of gravity, and natural point of repose, until the ideas of 1766 are resumed, and steadily pursued.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

At the time of delivering it, the Brāhmin puts his right hand on each person’s head, and repeats a short prayer; and, when finished, he directs them all to chew the rice, which at a given time must be produced on the leaves masticated.
— from Omens and Superstitions of Southern India by Edgar Thurston

I am by nature tender-hearted and kindly, but, as I said, the desire to revenge myself for a wrong that was done me so overturns all my better impulses that I keep on in this way of life in spite of what conscience tells me; and as one depth calls to another, and one sin to another sin, revenges have linked themselves together, and I have taken upon myself not only my own but those of others: it pleases God, however, that, though I see myself in this maze of entanglements, I do not lose all hope of escaping from it and reaching a safe port."
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

One resembled a tiger in fury and rapaciousness; a second prowled about like an hungry wolf, seeking whom he might devour; a third acted the part of a jackal, in beating the bush for game to his voracious employer; and the fourth imitated the wily fox, in practising a thousand crafty ambuscades for the destruction of the ignorant and unwary.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

Yet was not this done without a great deal of solicitude and anxiety of mind; I kept it very close, and though I dare talk so boldly of myself, never spoke of my money, but falsely, as others do, who being rich, pretend to be poor, and being poor, pretend to be rich, dispensing their consciences from ever telling sincerely what they have: a ridiculous and shameful prudence.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

There may, therefore, certainly be acts of activity in War which, without any alteration in the point of view, may just as well be counted strategic as tactical; for example, very extended positions resembling a chain of posts, the preparations for the passage of a river at several points, &c. Our classification reaches and covers only the USE OF THE MILITARY FORCE.
— from On War — Volume 1 by Carl von Clausewitz

Bolts and rings are still preserved in the trees about Jawara and Chawand, to which baskets were suspended, the only cradles of the royal children of Mewar, in order to preserve them from the tiger and the wolf.
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 or the Central and Western Rajput States of India by James Tod

When she had passed on, he began to descend the staircase again, with the slowness which he had observed in the spectre, believing himself to be a spectre too, haggard, with hair on end, his extinguished lamp still in his hand; and as he descended the spiral steps, he distinctly heard in his ear a voice laughing and repeating,— “A spirit passed before my face, and I heard a small voice, and the hair of my flesh stood up.” H2 anchor CHAPTER II.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

Cum Cyrillo lenius omnino egi, quam si tecum aut cum aliis rei hujus probe gnaris et aequis rerum aestimatoribus sermones privatos conferrem, (Thesaur.
— 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

Riis—The Making of an American By Jacob Riis "Its romance and vivid incident make it as varied and delightful as any romance."— Publisher's Weekly. Riis—Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen By Jacob Riis "A refreshing and stimulating picture."— New York Tribune.
— from Getting Acquainted with the Trees by J. Horace (John Horace) McFarland

In them are reflected all social, political, and religious revolutions.
— from The Romance of Wills and Testaments by Edgar Vine Hall

The vision probably strikes us as repulsive and simply preposterous.
— from English Literature and Society in the Eighteenth Century by Leslie Stephen

And little Puddock flushed up, and his round eyes grew rounder and rounder, as she proceeded, every moment; and he did not know what to say—for it had not struck him before that Messrs. Barry's and Woodward's theatrical venture might be viewed in the light of idolatry or murder.
— from The House by the Church-Yard by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

This opposition was particularly true of work on the lower rapids, where the great ship canal now offers a ready and safe passage around rapids always difficult to navigate.
— from Old Times on the Upper Mississippi The Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863 by George Byron Merrick

He is a determined, almost a savage partisan in politics and religion, a steady patriot, something of a statesman, very much indeed of a friend and a lover.
— from A History of Elizabethan Literature by George Saintsbury

The Calvinists now handed in to the magistrate a memorial, in which they showed that their great numbers made it impossible for them henceforward to assemble in secrecy, and requested a separate place of worship to be allowed them inside the town.
— from History of the Revolt of the Netherlands — Complete by Friedrich Schiller

A blind man can never have an adequate understanding of the meaning of color and red ; a seeing person can acquire the knowledge only by hav
— from How We Think by John Dewey