The authority which is most conversant with principles should be supreme over principles, while that which is most competent in details should have the details left to it.
— from Considerations on Representative Government by John Stuart Mill

Happily, this wayward and pettish, I will not call it disloyal spirit, has passed away, and most of the “Annexationists” are now heartily ashamed of their conduct.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

By Land from the U. States in 1804 & 1805. H2 anchor [Clark, December 4, 1805] December 4th Wednesday 180151 Some little rain all the last night and this morning after day the rain increased and Continued I despatched Serjt.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

As for the system itself I never understood it, neither can I do so now: they have a code in connection with it, which I have not the slightest doubt that they understand, but no foreigner can hope to do so.
— from Erewhon; Or, Over the Range by Samuel Butler

Of course, it did seem to begin to grow for her that morning.
— from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Good morning!” H2 anchor Book 6 Chapter 2 Two days after this conversation in Downing Street, a special messenger arrived at Marney Abbey from the Lord Lieutenant of the county, the Duke of Fitz-Aquitaine.
— from Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield

If I judge my readers’ impressions correctly, I dare say
— from Totem and Taboo Resemblances Between the Psychic Lives of Savages and Neurotics by Sigmund Freud

Wait for me in the first inn on the left-hand side of the street, and be sure I shall come in due season.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

This inapplicable answer might have been too much for the comprehension of many; but it did not puzzle Mrs. Allen, for after only a moment's consideration, she said, in a whisper to Catherine, “I dare say she thought I was speaking of her son.”
— from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

In one single ivory cell of the brain there are stored away things more marvellous and more terrible than even they have dreamed of, who, like the author of Le Rouge et le Noir , have sought to track the soul into its most secret places, and to make life confess its dearest sins.
— from Intentions by Oscar Wilde

"Certainly I do," said I; "and did you know her?"
— from A Woman's Life-Work — Labors and Experiences of Laura S. Haviland by Laura S. (Laura Smith) Haviland

In the dry part of the river the extraction of the sand, stones, and cascalho is done solely by hand.
— from Scientific American Supplement, No. 458, October 11, 1884 by Various

And in the narrower circle of family interests how valuable a part of family heirlooms would be the phonograms containing a vocal message to posterity from Grandfather this, or Great-aunt that, whose portraits in the drawing-room album do little more than call attention to the changes in dress since the time when their subjects faced the camera!
— from The Romance of Modern Invention Containing Interesting Descriptions in Non-technical Language of Wireless Telegraphy, Liquid Air, Modern Artillery, Submarines, Dirigible Torpedoes, Solar Motors, Airships, &c. &c. by Archibald Williams

The noise and confusion increases down stairs, and I shall sleep little tonight.
— from A Woman who went to Alaska by May Kellogg Sullivan

"Was such a real and indisputable Miracle, as this of Lazarus is supposed, to be wrought at this day in Confirmation of Christianity, I dare say, it would bring all us Jews , to a Man, into the Belief of it:
— from Six Discourses on the Miracles of Our Saviour, and Defences of His Discourses by Thomas Woolston

It terrified him—this endless, molten rush of thoughts; he could see them coming in different shapes from different places in his head, but they all joined immediately, and always formed the same fixed idea.
— from Red Men and White by Owen Wister

This testimony, contained in documents submitted to the War Department and the Army War College, was often critical of the Army's employment of black troops, although rarely critical of segregation.
— from Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965 by Morris J. MacGregor

“Of course I do,” said Mrs. Pepper briskly, and beaming on him; “I think everything of them, and I shall keep them as long as I live, Van!”
— from Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney

Olympus there, and mightier Atlas, fell; Which seem'd above the reach of fate to stand, A tow'ring monument of God's right hand; Now dust and smoke, whose brow, so lately, spread O'er shelter'd countries its diffusive shade.
— from The Poetical Works of Edward Young, Volume 2 by Edward Young