For between every given degree of light and of darkness, between every degree of heat and of absolute cold, between every degree of weight and of absolute lightness, between every degree of occupied space and of totally void space, diminishing degrees can be conceived, in the same manner as between consciousness and total unconsciousness (the darkness of a psychological blank) ever diminishing degrees obtain.
— from Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics by Immanuel Kant

DUTCH UNCLE, a personage often introduced in conversation, but exceedingly difficult to describe; “I’ll talk to him like a DUTCH UNCLE !”
— from A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James. by John Camden Hotten

No one can any longer reply to the question: "Why?" (4) Belittlement, susceptibility to pain, unrest, haste, and confusion are steadily increasing—the materialisation of all these tendencies, which is called "civilisation," becomes every day more simple, with the result that, in the face of the monstrous machine, the individual despairs and surrenders.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book I and II by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

He had come to England on purpose to find her; and had taken a free, fully-licensed public, in Lambeth, where he wished her to join him in conducting the business, which was likely to be a very thriving one, the house being situated in an excellent, densely populated, gin-drinking neighbourhood, and already doing a trade of £200 a month, which could be easily doubled.
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

The insignificant pageantry of their court becomes every day more brilliant; and the expense of it not only prevents accumulation, but frequently encroaches upon the funds destined for more necessary expenses.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

And a bachelor's house has a something about it that is very comfortable but entirely different from a lady's house, though it would be difficult to define wherein the difference lies.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post

These, in turn, were crowded out by Japanese women, doll-like, stepping mincingly on wooden clogs; by Eurasians, delicate featured, stamped with degeneracy; by full-bodied South-Sea-Island women, flower-crowned and brown-skinned.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London

High up on the branches, like so many of those tiny rose-trees, their pots concealed in jackets of paper lace, whose slender stems rise in a forest from the altar on the greater festivals, a thousand buds were swelling and opening, paler in colour, but each disclosing as it burst, as at the bottom of a cup of pink marble, its blood-red stain, and suggesting even more strongly than the full-blown flowers the special, irresistible quality of the hawthorn-tree, which, wherever it budded, wherever it was about to blossom, could bud and blossom in pink flowers alone.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

A father could be easily deceived, and the tender age of the children would have been an important--perhaps the chief--factor in the unconscious error.
— from Aaron the Jew: A Novel by B. L. (Benjamin Leopold) Farjeon

Karppe, S. —Mélanges de Critique Biblique et d'Assyriologie.
— from The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria by Morris Jastrow

Somalia NA%; note - businesses print their own money, so inflation rates cannot be easily determined South Africa 6.5% (2007 est.)
— from The 2008 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency

The whole Country being extreamly discompos'd, and understanding that their Prince and Princess were violently carried away, addressed themselves to these Religioso's, who were in great danger of losing their Lives: But they being made to understand this unjust Action, were extraordinarily afflicted, and 'tis probable would have suffered Death, rather than permit the Indians to be so injuriously dealt with, which might prove an Obstruction to their receiving of, and believing in God's Word.
— from A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies Or, a faithful NARRATIVE OF THE Horrid and Unexampled Massacres, Butcheries, and all manner of Cruelties, that Hell and Malice could invent, committed by the Popish Spanish Party on the inhabitants of West-India, TOGETHER With the Devastations of several Kingdoms in America by Fire and Sword, for the space of Forty and Two Years, from the time of its first Discovery by them. by Bartolomé de las Casas

Kaunt vostre brez est molu, E de ewe chaude ben enbeu, Des bertiz 22 ver cervoyse Par art contrové teise.
— from The Curiosities of Ale & Beer: An Entertaining History (Illustrated with over Fifty Quaint Cuts) by John Bickerdyke

PRINTED FOR FRANCIS A. NICCOLLS & CO. BOSTON Edition De Luxe.
— from The Mysteries of Paris, Volume 4 of 6 by Eugène Sue

The quartette enjoyed a costly but exquisite dinner, chatting and laughing the while.
— from Mademoiselle of Monte Carlo by William Le Queux

The bulk of society showed entire indifference to worship, the churches being everywhere deserted; and “atheism was openly avowed, and Christianity ridiculed as the invention of priestcraft.”
— from A Short History of Freethought Ancient and Modern, Volume 2 of 2 Third edition, Revised and Expanded, in two volumes by J. M. (John Mackinnon) Robertson

" "That can be easily done; we are fishing at the Isle de Hoedic—come with us.
— from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas

But the Barbarians were finally repulsed; the country became every day less favorable to the operations of cavalry; and when the Romans arrived at Macepracta, they perceived the ruins of the wall, which had been constructed by the ancient kings of Assyria, to secure their dominions from the incursions of the Medes.
— from History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2 by Edward Gibbon