Rome , the Misstress of the World, was no more at first than a Refuge for Thieves and Outlaws; and if the Progress of our Pyrates had been equal to their Beginning; had they all united, and settled in some of those Islands, they might, by this Time, have been honoured with the Name of a Commonwealth, and no Power in those Parts of the World could have been able to dispute it with them.
— from A General History of the Pyrates: from their first rise and settlement in the island of Providence, to the present time by Daniel Defoe

I may add as an explanation that the use of mystery has been attempted even in philosophy; for example, when Pascal, who was pietest, mathematician, and philosopher in one, says in this threefold character: God is everywhere centre and nowhere periphery .
— from Essays of Schopenhauer by Arthur Schopenhauer

With so many games and programs around, it is difficult to stay current about new programs and new versions of old ones.
— from The Online World by Odd De Presno

And likewise the first to converse about natural philosophy, as some say.
— from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius

Or, if you shall so prefer to choose, a new province of knowledge and new avenues to fame and power shall be laid open to you, here, in this room, upon the instant; and your sight shall be blasted by a prodigy to stagger the unbelief of Satan."
— from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

He lends thee virtue, and he stole that word From thy behaviour; beauty doth he give, And found it in thy cheek: he can afford No praise to thee, but what in thee doth live.
— from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare

My brother-in-law, Brockhaus, proposed to send me to Hummel, at Weimar, to be trained as a pianist, but as I loudly protested that by 'music' I meant 'composing,' and not 'playing an instrument,' they gave way, and decided to let me have regular lessons in harmony from Muller, the very musician from whom I had had instruction on the sly some little while before, and who had not yet been paid.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

And whereas every man, or assembly that hath Soveraignty, representeth two Persons, or (as the more common phrase is) has two Capacities, one Naturall, and another Politique, (as a Monarch, hath the person not onely of the Common-wealth, but also of a man; and a Soveraign Assembly hath the Person not onely of the Common-wealth, but also of the Assembly); they that be servants to them in their naturall Capacity, are not Publique Ministers; but those onely that serve them in the Administration of the Publique businesse.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included.
— from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A gallant caserne it was—the best and roomiest that I had hitherto seen—rather cold page 70 p. 70 and windy, it is true, especially in the winter, but commanding a noble prospect of a range of distant hills, which I was told were “the hieland hills,” and of a broad arm of the sea, which I heard somebody say was the Firth of Forth.
— from Lavengro The Scholar - The Gypsy - The Priest, Vol. 1 (of 2) by George Borrow

It was Roger Bacon who wrote: “Experimental science ignores abstract arguments; because, strong though they may be, their conclusions are not perfectly certain until verified by experiment....
— from Gunpowder and Ammunition, Their Origin and Progress by H. W. L. (Henry William Lovett) Hime

“When you speak, your language in general is good, and correct; and no pains shall be wanting, on my part,” said this haughty but benevolent lady, “to form your manners, and to develop your talents.
— from Tales and Novels — Volume 02 Popular Tales by Maria Edgeworth

Cities and nations previously held in subjection or overshadowed by the splendor and power of Tollan, take advantage of her civil troubles to enlarge their respective domains and to establish independent powers.
— from The Native Races [of the Pacific states], Volume 2, Civilized Nations The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume 2 by Hubert Howe Bancroft

But this resolution, which was taken contrary to the opinion of Matilda, and many of the ministers [d], drew after it very unhappy consequences; and never prince of so great penetration appeared, in the issue, to have so little understood the genius and character of his minister.
— from The History of England, Volume I From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688 by David Hume