The concept of cause implies a rule, according to which one state follows another necessarily; but experience can only show us, that one state of things often, or at most, commonly, follows another, and therefore affords neither strict universality, nor necessity.
— from Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics by Immanuel Kant

And some of those modern reformers who have placed themselves in strongest opposition to the religions of the past, have been noway behind either churches or sects in their assertion of the right of spiritual domination: M. Comte, in particular, whose social system, as unfolded in his Traité de Politique Positive , aims at establishing (though by moral more than by legal appliances) a despotism of society over the individual, surpassing anything contemplated in the political ideal of the most rigid disciplinarian among the ancient philosophers.
— from On Liberty by John Stuart Mill

A Frenchman is really shocked by eight changes of scenery in one act of a tragedy.
— from On Love by Stendhal

“Timorous thieves, by extreme caution, often subject themselves to discoveries, which those of a bolder kind escape.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

Oh, I know some of those fatheaded Brotherhood economists call our system economic slavery—and I’ll admit that it’s pretty hard to crack out of a spherical trust.
— from The Lani People by Jesse F. (Jesse Franklin) Bone

The reading matter on the label should contain facts only, and should not bear extravagant claims of superior quality or of methods of preparing or packing that have not been followed.
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

than an army can be of advantage; and that therefore he ought not to be entirely confident of success in a case where he is to fight against his king, his supporter, and one that had often been his benefactor, and that had never been severe to him, any otherwise than as he had hearkened to evil counselors, and this no further than by bringing a shadow of injustice upon him.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus

The Bazarovian establishment consisted of six small rooms, of which one—the room to which Vasili Ivanitch was now conducting our friends—
— from Fathers and Sons by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

We have preserved them, nevertheless, as affording at once a touching and a convincing proof of the estimation in which he was held by every class of society, and the case with which he made his way to their hearts and feelings.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

Your late master, the Melek Richard, has fallen into the power of his enemies; he is now a prisoner of the Archduke's on many charges: first, the killing of your brother Eudo, Count of Saint-Pol; but that is a very trifling affair, which occurred, moreover, in fair battle.
— from The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay by Maurice Hewlett

The kings built tombs for themselves, like mountains, square at the bottom, but each course of stones built within the last till they taper to a point at the top.
— from The Chosen People: A Compendium of Sacred and Church History for School-Children by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge

The suggested conclusion from the above argument is that the main body of the Aryan immigrants, that is the Vaishyas, settled down in villages by exogamous clans or septs.
— from The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 1 by R. V. (Robert Vane) Russell

When we say of a person that he is influenced by external circumstances or subdued by fate, we regard him as existing independently of that which influences or subdues him, we attribute to him an innate character which is acted upon from the outside.
— from The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas by Edward Westermarck

[130] The supports of the arcades must have been either columns or small piers.
— from Amurath to Amurath by Gertrude Lowthian Bell

" Not many ages, not many years even, had to pass before emphatic comment on such a mode of dealing with the complaints of the American colonies was made by the American colonists themselves.
— from A History of the Four Georges, Volume II by Justin McCarthy

He wandered rather confusedly into a rambling speech about her age and her position and the responsibilities of life and his inabilities to prevent their reaching her, and about his very tender affection for her and his understanding of all those girlish reticences and reluctances which made innocent youth so exquisite, while silently his daughter hung her head and wondered what he would be saying if he knew that she had broken every canon of seclusion and convention, had talked and danced with a man....
— from The Fortieth Door by Mary Hastings Bradley

I carried my petition and a small book entitled "Curiosities of Science" with me.
— from The Romance of the Harem by Anna Harriette Leonowens