Under these circumstances the social power is constantly changing hands, because it is subordinate to the power of the people, which is too apt to forget the maxims of wisdom and of foresight in the consciousness of its strength: hence arises its danger; and thus its vigor, and not its impotence, will probably be the cause of its ultimate destruction.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville

But the keen and trenchant blade of Dryden never makes a thrust in vain, and never strikes but at a vulnerable point.
— from The Dramatic Works of John Dryden, Volume 1 With a Life of the Author by Walter Scott

For the last half-mile he had been thinking what he would say to her, and thinking in vain; and now, at the last moment, he could summon no words to his assistance more potent for his purpose than these.
— from Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope

An organization rooted in such prolific soil, and cultured with such husbandry, and so full of vital sap, that in less than forty years its growths branch so widely that millions refresh themselves in their shade, whose vigor is so forth-putting that it has flowered into colleges and universities and institutes whose names and fame are known wherever English speech has gone; that organization has passed out of and beyond the realm of criticism as to its value, and needs no runners to advertise it to the people among whom it is planted.
— from The American Missionary — Volume 39, No. 10, October, 1885 by Various

But the real horror [52] of war is that it falls not upon its authors, that its victims are not statesmen, but the beauty of a country's youth, the helplessness of the widow and orphan.
— from The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Isaiah, Volume 1 (of 2) by George Adam Smith

“I believe in a Providence that never does any thing in vain, and never creates great men in order to let them be crushed, like flies, by miserable monkeys.
— from Louisa of Prussia and Her Times: A Historical Novel by L. (Luise) Mühlbach

Under these circumstances the social power is constantly changing hands, because it is subordinate to the power of the people, which is too apt to forget the maxims of wisdom and of foresight in the consciousness of its strength: hence arises its danger; and thus its vigor, and not its impotence, will probably be the cause of its ultimate dest
— from American Institutions and Their Influence by Alexis de Tocqueville

Some such plan as the following would accomplish all that is vainly attempted now.
— from Thomas Davis, Selections from his Prose and Poetry by Thomas Osborne Davis

I can but think it a great opportunity for Congress to intrust to the highest tribunal in this country, evidently imbued with a strong spirit in favor of a reform of procedure, the power to frame a model code of procedure, which, while preserving all that is valuable and necessary of the rights and remedies at common law and in equity, shall lessen the burden of the poor litigant to a minimum in the expedition and cheapness with which his cause can be fought or defended through Federal courts to final judgment.
— from State of the Union Addresses (1790-2006) by United States. Presidents