They were pleased with its situation on the confines of Persis, and with the importance of the city; besides the consideration that it had never of itself undertaken any great enterprise, had always been in subjection to other people, and constituted a part of a greater body, except, perhaps, anciently in the heroic times.
— from The Geography of Strabo, Volume 3 (of 3) Literally Translated, with Notes by Strabo

But I should think of shallows and of flats, And see my wealthy Andrew dock'd in sand, Vailing her high top lower than her ribs To kiss her burial.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

This is also unconfirmed, but I suppose the only reason they would stay bought in any case is that there are no other bidders in the market.
— from Letters from China and Japan by Harriet Alice Chipman Dewey

I found, indeed, some intervals of reflection; and the serious thoughts did, as it were, endeavour to return again sometimes; but I shook them off, and roused myself from them as it were from a distemper, and applying myself to drinking and company, soon mastered the return of those fits—for so I called them; and I had in five or six days got as complete a victory over conscience as any young fellow that resolved not to be troubled with it could desire.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

If all things were perceived together and co-existed for thought, as they actually flow through being, on one flat phenomenal level, what sense would there be in saying that one element had compelled another to appear?
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

‘As a boy, I saw two old women passing a babe over red-hot coals, and then drop some of the cinders in a cup of water and give the water to the babe to drink, in order to cure it of a fairy stroke.’
— from The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. (Walter Yeeling) Evans-Wentz

But I shall tell only one story.
— from Andersen's Fairy Tales by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

If they declare that it is they who are advancing towards unity, only the most simple-hearted among them believe it, so that one may positively marvel at such simplicity.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

A number of men and women of decent appearance lay on the short grass before the booths, idly sunning themselves; or moved about, cooking and tending fires, while a score of children raced to and fro with noisy shouts and laughter.
— from Historical Romances: Under the Red Robe, Count Hannibal, A Gentleman of France by Stanley John Weyman

The twins' outgrown suits were found to fit Joe Hammond to perfection, "and a lucky thing I thought of it, Joe, before I sent them off to my sister's children in Chicago!"
— from Poor, Dear Margaret Kirby by Kathleen Thompson Norris

M. de Tonty has often found fault with me because I stopped too often to talk with them.
— from France and England in North America, Part III: La Salle, Discovery of The Great West by Francis Parkman

But the poet’s sensibility without his voice—the poet’s sensibility that finds no vent but in silent tears on the sunny bank, when the noonday light sparkles on the water, or in an inward shudder at the sound of harsh human tones, the sight of a cold human eye—this dumb passion brings with it a fatal solitude of soul in the society of one’s fellow-men.
— from The Lifted Veil by George Eliot

What a play we might have run up!—I was a beast not to think of it before I sent them off—I to be Alexander—Claud Halcro, Lysimachus—this old gentleman might have made a Clytus, for a pinch.
— from The Pirate Andrew Lang Edition by Walter Scott

And thou, said he, wilt be interred some time or other.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

I have been in some trouble on their account: about a year ago they robbed a man a little farther on beyond the second bridge.
— from The Bible in Spain Or, the Journeys, Adventures, and Imprisonments of an Englishman, in an Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures in the Peninsula by George Borrow

And if using it with thankfulness, if doing our very best with it, knowing that "a man is accepted according to what he hath, and not according to what he hath not," we labour humbly and diligently; then, not only does the talent itself become increased, so that our Lord, when he comes to reckon with us, may receive his own with usury: but a blessing of another kind is added to our labours, again, as in the former case, making those who were last to become first.
— from The Christian Life: Its Course, Its Hindrances, and Its Helps by Thomas Arnold

But I say that one of those necessities precisely is a belief in objective truth.
— from The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy, and other essays in contemporary thought by John Dewey

The owners of these animals soon begin to brag of their strength and speed, and to challenge all and any to catch and hold them; and in a short time one of the best beasts is selected to open the day’s proceedings.
— from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 5 of 7 by Edgar Thurston