For, in the first place even the principle which I have already taken as a rule, viz., that all the things which we clearly and distinctly conceive are true, is certain only because God is or exists and because he is a Perfect Being, and because all that we possess is derived from him: whence it follows that our ideas or notions, which to the extent of their clearness and distinctness are real, and proceed from God, must to that extent be true.
— from Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences by René Descartes

At once there came a distinctly audible reply, "The boy is not a fool; and 3 3 has an obvious Geometrical meaning.
— from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Illustrated) by Edwin Abbott Abbott

It is indeed a widespread notion that imps and witches lurk about the fireside, obviously in cat and dog, and ride through the air on implements that usually stand about the fire,—shovel, tongs, or broom.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

V. prosper, thrive, flourish; be prosperous &c adj.; drive a roaring trade, do a booming business; go on well, go on smoothly, go on swimmingly; sail before the wind, swim with the tide; run smooth, run smoothly, run on all fours.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget

[pg 054] “Very well, I will come,” Alyosha decided, after rapidly scanning the brief, enigmatic note, which consisted of an urgent entreaty that he would come, without any sort of explanation.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

At eight o’clock precisely she got up, and saying coldly and dryly, “Au revoir, monsieur,” walked out of the study, leaving behind her the same tender, delicate, disturbing fragrance.
— from The Duel and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

[237] I conclude then that so far as such qualities as those which I have distinguished as Caution, and Decision, are recognised as Virtues and not merely as intellectual excellences, it is because they are, in fact, species of Self-control; i.e. because they involve voluntary adoption of and adhesion to rational judgments as to conduct, in spite of certain irrational motives prompting in an opposite direction.
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick

Note .—They who may be disposed to question the possibility of the character above depicted, are referred to the 2d vol. of Porter's Voyage into the Pacific, where they will recognize many sentences, for expedition's sake derived verbatim from thence, and incorporated here; the main difference—save a few passing reflections—between the two accounts being, that the present writer has added to Porter's facts accessory ones picked up in the Pacific from [pg 391] reliable sources; and where facts conflict, has naturally preferred his own authorities to Porter's.
— from The Piazza Tales by Herman Melville

The power of the crown, almost dead and rotten as Prerogative, has grown up anew, with much more strength, and far less odium, under the name of Influence.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

I met him in a distant town reduced to carrying away dust and rubbish from the houses.
— from The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

We might trace it from its primitive cross and disk and rayed ornament common to all primitive art to the splendid Greek conception of Phœbus Apollo in his chariot drawn by fiery horses, which figures so constantly in Greek design, the circular flaming disk being represented in the wheel, though in an early relief discovered by Dr. Schliemann the head of Apollo is surrounded by rays, which gives the type generally used by Gothic and modern designers in symbolic representations of the sun—simply a face in the circle surrounded by rays.
— from The Bases of Design by Walter Crane

That church covered Europe with cathedrals and dungeons, and robbed men of the jewel of the soul.
— from The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Complete Contents Dresden Edition—Twelve Volumes by Robert Green Ingersoll

When he began his discourse, he raised up very calmly and deliberately and read from Matthew, seventh chapter, verses fifteen to twenty.
— from Life of a Pioneer: Being the Autobiography of James S. Brown by James S. (James Stephens) Brown

record myself A villain, for the privilege to breathe, And carry up and down this cursed city, A discontented and repining spirit, Burdensome to itself, a few years longer!
— from Venice Preserved: A Tragedy in Five Acts by Thomas Otway

The death of Christ was to precede his resurrection in order of time; there is a succession in this; both at once are known by God; yet the act of his knowledge is not exercised about Christ as dying and rising at the same time; so that there is succession in things when there is no succession in God’s knowledge of them.
— from The Existence and Attributes of God, Volumes 1 and 2 by Stephen Charnock

Next came Christmas, which I can't write about now, and then Twelfth-night, when we had a splendid supper, with a great plum-cake in the middle of the table, covered all over with queer little sugar things, cats and dogs and rabbits, chocolate shoes and mice and goats, and cunning little candy babies.
— from Harper's Young People, April 5, 1881 An Illustrated Weekly by Various

Jim is thirty, clean looking, dressed in his rough working clothes without coat or his combined collar and "dicky" and red tie, which hangs with the coat behind the door.
— from Graft: A Comedy in Four Acts by Harold Brighouse

If girls are brought up in a proper, healthy manner, if they do not rush about from ball to party or from one {181} excitement to the other, if they realise their condition, and dress and rest themselves properly beforehand, in nine cases out of ten the illness, being a natural one, has no attendant dangers, and should therefore be looked upon in an entirely different manner than it is at present.
— from From Kitchen to Garret: Hints for young householders by J. E. (Jane Ellen) Panton

Again cold and dreary after river goes.
— from Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, Vol. 2 (of 2) by Dorothy Wordsworth