The weakest soul, knowing its own weakness, and believing this truth that strength can only be developed by effort and practice, will, thus believing, at once begin to exert itself, and, adding effort to effort, patience to patience, and strength to strength, will never cease to develop, and will at last grow divinely strong.
— from As a Man Thinketh by James Allen

A buxom-looking lass of sixteen, with bright eyes and purple cheeks, came to answer the knock and looked hard at the Major as he leant back against the little porch.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

"What right!" said Epps, laughing; "why, I bought 'em, and paid for 'em."
— from Twelve Years a Slave Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana by Solomon Northup

To Florence, as to many a city of Northern and Central Italy, the first opportunity of winning [Pg xx] freedom came with the contest between Emperor and Pope in the time of Hildebrand.
— from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri

But eventually Adam probably told the bore all the things he thought about at night when the locusts sang in the sandy grass, and he must have remarked patronizingly how different he was from Eve, forgetting how different she was from him... at any rate, Clara told Amory much about herself that evening.
— from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott (Francis Scott) Fitzgerald

Boutez en avant —Push forward.
— 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.

There are exactly the same number of modes of syllogisms, each of which proceeds through prosyllogisms to the unconditioned—one to the subject which cannot be employed as predicate, another to the presupposition which supposes nothing higher than itself, and the third to an aggregate of the members of the complete division of a conception.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

"Then, (said he,) the pig has no cause to complain; he would have been killed the first year if he had not been EDUCATED, and protracted existence is a good recompence for very considerable degrees of torture.
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson Abridged and edited, with an introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood by James Boswell

Jos. Fields, Bratten, Gibson to proceed to the Ocean at Some Convenient place form a Camp and Commence makeing Salt with 5 of the largest Kittles, and Willard and Wiser to assist them in Carrying the Kittles to the Sea Coastall the other men to be employed about putting up pickets & makeing the gates of the fort.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

this appeared to be the skin of a sheep not fully grown; the horns were about four inches long, celindric, smooth, black, erect and pointed; they rise from the middle of the forehead a little above the eyes.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

Each boy will provide his carfare to and from the fruit section, provide his own knife, fork, cup, plate, spoon, wash basin, tick for mattress, pillow, blankets, etc., and pay for his food and cooking.
— from Our Schools in War Time—and After by Arthur D. (Arthur Davis) Dean

It was nearly as bad as if I had been entertaining at Pocahontas.
— from Dorothy South: A Love Story of Virginia Just Before the War by George Cary Eggleston

On the other hand, show as little bare earth as possible at every season of the year.
— from The Book of Old-Fashioned Flowers And Other Plants Which Thrive in the Open-Air of England by Harry Roberts

But economical and political prosperity is no exhaustive measure of human progress.
— from The English in the West Indies; Or, The Bow of Ulysses by James Anthony Froude

Judicial intercourse between the courts of Cuba and Puerto Rico and of Spain has been established, as provided by the treaty of peace.
— from A Supplement to A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents by William McKinley

After detailing how the transfer would be easy, and palatable, rather than otherwise, to the natives generally, Clive proceeded to represent that so large a sovereignty might possibly be an object too extensive for a mercantile company, and to suggest that it might be worthy of consideration whether the Crown should not take the matter in hand.
— from Rulers of India: Lord Clive by G. B. (George Bruce) Malleson

Miss Mary Ellen Maidment, a comely damsel of nineteen with bright eyes and peach-like cheeks, emerged expectant from the kitchen.
— from Mr. Poskitt's Nightcaps: Stories of a Yorkshire Farmer by J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher

A genius of the kind, he writes in 1811 "never before existed and probably never will be surpassed."
— from Haydn by J. Cuthbert (James Cuthbert) Hadden