If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.
— from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

It cannot be doubted, that the mind is endowed with several powers and faculties, that these powers are distinct from each other, that what is really distinct to the immediate perception may be distinguished by reflexion; and consequently, that there is a truth and falsehood in all propositions on this subject, and a truth and falsehood, which lie not beyond the compass of human understanding.
— from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume

Its first green leaves may be regarded as corresponding to the first crude imaginations of man as written, for instance, on leaves of the Vedas.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

In this case you start the counting at the right-hand figure of the bottom row, and count towards the left.
— from Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula by Walter William Skeat

The diversity of the state [Pg 314] ments of writers leaves it uncertain whether both the consuls set out for the citadel of Carventa, or whether one remained behind to hold the elections; those facts in which they do not disagree are to be received as certain, that they retired from the citadel of Carventa, after having carried on the attack for a long time to no purpose: that Verrugo in the Volscian country was taken by the same army, and that great devastation had been made, and considerable booty captured both amongst the Æquans and in the Volscian territory.
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy

When they had gotten a short distance from shore, the dwarfs rowed onto a blind rock and capsized the boat.
— from The Younger Edda; Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson

And though Cicero 101 differs from this judgment, yet it may be regarded as certain that Timaeus was better qualified for the task of learned compilation than for historical research, and held no distinguished place among the historians of Greece.
— from On the Sublime by active 1st century Longinus

‘Tis for this that most of them have their originals and beginnings fabulous, and enriched with supernatural mysteries; ‘tis this that has given credit to bastard religions, and caused them to be countenanced by men of understanding; and for this, that Numa and Sertorius, to possess their men with a better opinion of them, fed them with this foppery; one, that the nymph Egeria, the other that his white hind, brought them all their counsels from the gods.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

The most we can say in criticism of Kitchener is that he might have done more, as the troops gained confidence and efficiency—and they did gain both, rapidly and continuously—to temper the rigidity of his excessively centralized system.
— from War and the Arme Blanche by Erskine Childers

One day the pale population engaged in tilling this shadowy paradise will be horrified to perceive, in their encircling bulwarks, rents and crevices that ooze forth ominous jets of mud.
— from Fountains in the Sand: Rambles Among the Oases of Tunisia by Norman Douglas

Nearer and nearer he came, still clinging to the hen-coop, and making no efforts whatever, but reserving and collecting together all his strength, so as to put it forth at the final hour of need.
— from Cord and Creese by James De Mille

All of these facts simply emphasize the importance of the chromosomes, and tell us that these bodies must be regarded as containing the most important features of the cell which constitute its individuality.
— from The Story of the Living Machine A Review of the Conclusions of Modern Biology in Regard to the Mechanism Which Controls the Phenomena of Living Activity by H. W. (Herbert William) Conn

she employ’d the little time, that was granted her to consider whether she would yet burn Incense to the Roman Idols, in fervent Prayer to the true God, for a rescue of her Purity, not her Life; in order whereunto, she design’d and hop’d by Resistance and Contumelies to provoke her first Assailant, to become her Murderer, rather than her Ravisher.
— from Prefaces to Four Seventeenth-Century Romances Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill, preface to Parthenissa (1655) Sir George Mackenzie, "Apologie for romances," prefixed to Aretina, the serious romance (1660) Nathaniel Ingelo, preface to Bentivolio and Urania (1660) Robert Boyle, preface to Theodora and Didymus (1687) by George Mackenzie

After a time we crossed a broad river, and came to the dull, dark station of a large city.
— from Highroads of Geography Introductory Book: Round the World with Father by Anonymous

League between Rome and Carthage— Third Year of the War
— from The History of Rome, Book II From the Abolition of the Monarchy in Rome to the Union of Italy by Theodor Mommsen

By means of the letters, figures, and badge, any one could tell, at a glance, the army corps, division, brigade, regiment, and company, to which a soldier belonged, and the State from which he came.
— from The Medallic History of the United States of America 1776-1876 by J. F. (Joseph Florimond) Loubat

Then Barnabas rose, and coming to the window, peered cautiously out, and there, standing before the barn surveying its dilapidation with round, approving eyes, his nobbly stick beneath his arm, his high-crowned, broad-brimmed hat upon his head, was Mr. Shrig.
— from The Amateur Gentleman by Jeffery Farnol