There may be a vivid image and no idea; or there may be a fleeting, obscure image and yet an idea, if that image performs the function of instigating and directing the observation and relation of facts.
— from How We Think by John Dewey

[7] Charles V. , after his abdication, retired to the monastery of St. Justus, in Estramadura, where he amused himself, during the latter period of his life, in the making of automatons, in which he was assisted by a very ingenious artist named Turriano.
— from The Century of Inventions of the Marquis of Worcester from the Original MS., with Historical and Explanatory Notes and a Biographical Memoir by Worcester, Edward Somerset, Marquis of

Having once been a vagabond in a non-professional way, I have a theory about the physiognomy of houses.
— from The River and I by John G. Neihardt

She liked kings because she saw neither master nor dupe in a republic; she liked her early lover because she could see nothing but a victim in any new one.
— from Vittoria — Complete by George Meredith

This memorable affair took place near Pulo Aor, in the China seas, and by a very interesting, and no doubt useful coincidence, on the 14th of February, 1804, the seventh anniversary of the glorious action off Cape St. Vincent.
— from The Lieutenant and Commander Being Autobigraphical Sketches of His Own Career, from Fragments of Voyages and Travels by Basil Hall

Barnabites , a proselytising order of monks founded at Milan, where Barnabas was reported to have been bishop, in 1530; bound, as the rest are, by the three monastic vows, and by a vow in addition, not to sue for preferment in the Church.
— from The Nuttall Encyclopædia Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge by P. Austin Nuttall

Accordingly, until this moment, I have contained myself with all due restraint; but feeling, as I do feel, that patience has finally ceased to be a virtue, I am now constrained to address you in the first person singular, being further emboldened by the reflection that already a bond of sympathy and understanding
— from Fibble, D.D. by Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb

Foolish though it be and vain I am not master of my pain, And when I said good-night to you I hoped we should not meet again, And wondered how the soul I knew Could change so much; have I changed too?
— from The Three Hills, and Other Poems by Charles Baudelaire