But how such a proposition, which appears so greatly to extend our knowledge of nature, is possible completely a priori, is indeed a question which deserves investigation, although the first view seems to demonstrate the truth and reality of the principle, and the question, how it is possible, may be considered superfluous.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

When one looking stedfastly in his mistress's face, admires a mole as much as a beauty spot; when another swears his lady's stinking breath is a most redolent perfume; and at another time the fond parent hugs the squint-eyed child, and pretends it is rather a becoming glance and winning aspect than any blemish of the eye-sight, what is all this but the very height of Folly? IMG Folly (I say) that both makes friends and keeps them so.
— from In Praise of Folly Illustrated with Many Curious Cuts by Desiderius Erasmus

Can the modern organization of industry, assuming as it does free democratic government and the power and ability of the laboring classes to compel respect for their welfare,—can this system be carried out in the South when half its laboring force is voiceless in the public councils and powerless in its own defence?
— from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois

"That was ill done, Hans, thou shouldst have led the calf, and put it in the stall."
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Wilhelm Grimm

In it Galdós brought the new and the old face to face: the new in the form of a highly trained, clear-thinking, frank-speaking modern man; the old in the guise of a whole community so remote from the current of things that its religious intolerance, its social jealousy, its undisturbed confidence and pride in itself must of necessity declare instant war upon that which comes from without, unsympathetic and critical.
— from Doña Perfecta by Benito Pérez Galdós

A great change; what a change and progress is indicated here, in the universal condition and thoughts of men!
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

A permanently existing 'idea' or 'Vorstellung' which makes its appearance before the footlights of consciousness at periodical intervals, is as mythological an entity as the Jack of Spades.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James

He looked at it stupidly for a moment, and then with an uncertain glance at me, folded it with what seemed to me exaggerated care and placed it in his bosom.
— from The King in Yellow by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers

However it may be as to these conjectures, our author, having arrived at his thirty-eighth year, resolved to dedicate to study and contemplation the remaining term of his life; and on his birthday, the last of February 1571, he caused a philosophical inscription, in Latin, to be placed upon one of the walls of his chateau, where it is still to be seen, and of which the translation is to this effect:—“In the year of Christ . . .
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

As he rose up through the branches of the Wonderful Tree he tore off one of the great twin fruits—the magic double kernelled nuts that make people young,—and the little girl-daughter saw it bobbing alongside the canoe, and pulled it in and began to pick out the soft eyes of it with her little golden scissors.
— from Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

But in some cases it is; and in the instance to which we come at present it is so in a measure approached by no other country
— from The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory (Periods of European Literature, vol. II) by George Saintsbury

Gregorius Magistros, already mentioned, brought the body of the saint from Constantinople and placed it in the bottom of the well, where it served to cure sick pilgrims.
— from Armenian Legends and Festivals by Louis A. (Louis Angelo) Boettiger

After privately painting a copy of the picture, he cut the head out of the canvas, and placed it in such a position that the original could supply the opening with his own veritable face, undetected.
— from Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 3 of 3) by Shearjashub Spooner

The fresh green blade of corn is like this—so pellucid, so clear and pure in its green as to seem to shine with colour.
— from The Hills and the Vale by Richard Jefferies

We had passed through walls of piled bones, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of the catacombs.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

He did this by taking a little of the matter from the sores on the cows and putting it into the scratches on the people's arms.
— from Principles of Public Health A Simple Text Book on Hygiene, Presenting the Principles Fundamental to the Conservation of Individual and Community Health by Thomas Dyer Tuttle

If he had stayed he might easily have become one of the leading figures, certainly a powerful influence, in that Bohemia which Murger knew.
— from Vie de Bohème: A Patch of Romantic Paris by Orlo Williams

Get nice sweet lard that has no salt in it--put in any agreeable perfume, beat it to a cream, and put it in small pots.
— from The Virginia Housewife Or Methodical Cook by Mary Randolph