If it could be shown that our domestic varieties manifested a strong tendency to reversion—that is, to lose their acquired characters, while kept under the same conditions and while kept in a considerable body, so that free intercrossing might check, by blending together, any slight deviations in their structure, in such case, I grant that we could deduce nothing from domestic varieties in regard to species.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

We had seen the spot, outside the city somewhere, where these people had allowed the bones of Galileo to rest in unconsecrated ground for an age because his great discovery that the world turned around was regarded as a damning heresy by the church; and we know that long after the world had accepted his theory and raised his name high in the list of its great men, they had still let him rot there.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

The country now called Algeria was known to the Romans as Numidia.
— from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. A to Amide Vol. 1 Part 1 by Various

Laurie never forgets that," she said, putting the fresh nosegay in the vase that stood in 'Marmee's corner', and was kept supplied by the affectionate boy.
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

That young scapegrace George had fled too, and as the gentleman in the old cloak lined with red stuff stepped on to the shore, there was scarcely any one present to see what took place, which was briefly this: A lady in a dripping white bonnet and shawl, with her two little hands out before her, went up to him, and in the next minute she had altogether disappeared under the folds of the old cloak, and was kissing one of his hands with all her might; whilst the other, I suppose, was engaged in holding her to his heart (which her head just about reached) and in preventing her from tumbling down.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

59 Lucius Cæsar and Caius Cæsar were relations (it is uncertain in what degree) of the great Cæsar, and were killed by Fimbria on the same occasion as Octavius.
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth by Marcus Tullius Cicero

Some will bribe, beg, solicit, rise early, entreat, persist, without attaining the object of their suit; while another comes, and without knowing why or wherefore, finds himself invested with the place or office so many have sued for; and here it is that the common saying, 'There is good luck as well as bad luck in suits,' applies.
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Speaking in broken voice of the peasant youth Of Galilee who went to the city And was killed by bankers and lawyers; My voice mingling with the June wind That blew over wheat fields from Atterbury; While the white stones in the burying ground Around the Church shimmered in the summer sun.
— from Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters

—Aids, implying ‘free gifts,’ or ‘benevolences,’ as they were termed in a European code, are well known.
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 or the Central and Western Rajput States of India by James Tod

some Elk came near our camp and we killed 2 of them at 1 P.M. a cloud arrose to the S. W. and shortly after came on attended with violent Thunder Lightning and hail &c. (see notes on diary of the weather for June).
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

It helps to pass the time, but the cares and worries keep insistently presenting themselves, and the effort to inhibit them, and at the same time pay some attention to what we are reading, makes a double task.
— from Psychotherapy Including the History of the Use of Mental Influence, Directly and Indirectly, in Healing and the Principles for the Application of Energies Derived from the Mind to the Treatment of Disease by James J. (James Joseph) Walsh

Alone of all the sovereigns of Europe, the aged, defenceless Sovereign Pontiff refused to enter into his continental blocus against England, declaring that all Christians were his children, and we know the story of his long martyrdom at Fontainebleau.
— from The Religious Persecution in France 1900-1906 by J. Napier (Jane Napier) Brodhead

We hear of her at Attleborough with Samuel Whitwell's wife when the gates of Boston were closed, and we know she married Deacon Jonathan Mason on Sunday evening, December 20, 1778.
— from Diary of Anna Green Winslow, a Boston School Girl of 1771 by Anna Green Winslow

We know it only as susceptible of feelings that have already existed, and its susceptibilities of feelings which have not arisen, but which may, in other circumstances, arise, we know as little, as the blind can be supposed to know of colours, or as we, with all our senses, know of the qualities which matter might exhibit to us, if our own organization were different.
— from Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind (Vol. 1 of 3) by Thomas Brown

On 9th October, Antwerp, in spite of its strong fortifications and garrison, was taken after a twelve days’ siege directed by General von Beseler, commanding the III Reserve Corps, and well known in peace time as Chief of the [Pg 6] Engineer Corps and Inspector-General of Fortifications.
— from Ypres 1914: An Official Account Published by Order of the German General Staff by Otto Schwink

Therefore, on this second night, it is no common apprehension which keeps him awake, but one of the intensest kind, akin to stark terror.
— from The Death Shot: A Story Retold by Mayne Reid

she said to the daughter of the veteran actress who took old women parts, and who travelled with the company as wardrobe keeper.
— from A Woman Martyr by Alice M. (Alice Mangold) Diehl

But during the sixteenth century it was called as we know it to-day, taking its name from the district round.
— from Capitals of the Northlands: Tales of Ten Cities by Ian C. Hannah

To-day, when all the terrors of the Congo are well known, when the hardships of that kind of life have been repeated in the hearing of every one, rich men’s sons find little that is attractive in the Congo proposition.
— from The Truth About the Congo: The Chicago Tribune Articles by Frederick Starr