But the method chosen must be coherent in itself and the point of view assumed must be adhered to during that survey; so that whatever reconstruction the novel view may produce in science will be science still, and will involve assumptions and dogmas which must challenge comparison with the dogmas and assumptions they would supplant.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

On the contrary, it is original and immediate, and lies in human nature itself.
— from The Basis of Morality by Arthur Schopenhauer

But yours is no such case; on the contrary, had not the capital punishment for consumption been abolished, I should certainly inflict it now.
— from Erewhon; Or, Over the Range by Samuel Butler

To guard against the danger of external enemies the citizens should practise war at least one day in every month; they should go out en masse, including their wives and children, or in divisions, as the magistrates determine, and have mimic contests, imitating in a lively manner real battles; they should also have prizes and encomiums of valour, both for the victors in these contests, and for the victors in the battle of life.
— from Laws by Plato

Marriages arranged by parents only depend on a suitability of custom and convention; it is not two people who are united, but two positions and two properties; but these things may change, the people remain, they are always there; and in spite of fortune it is the personal relation that makes a happy or an unhappy marriage.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

When an aristocratic country is invaded after the defeat of its army, the nobles, although they are at the same time the wealthiest members of the community, will continue to defend themselves individually rather than submit; for if the conqueror remained master of the country, he would deprive them of their political power, to which they cling even more closely than to their property.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

Certain it is that if the building of the homes for these workmen is left to speculative builders of a strongly-pronounced individualistic type, and these reap golden harvests, it will be the fault, amongst others, of those large organisations of working-men which now place their capital in banks, whence it is withdrawn by those who with it “exploit” the very men who have placed it there.
— from Garden Cities of To-Morrow Being the Second Edition of "To-Morrow: a Peaceful Path to Real Reform" by Howard, Ebenezer, Sir

One is patent at once to every observer, namely, that by the continual discharge of many streams into basins which are of definite circumference and content, the water necessarily is continually increasing in bulk, and, had there been no outlet, would inevitably have encroached more and more, and occupied an ever enlarging area in the depression: but as outlets do exist, the surplus water is carried off by a natural process, and runs perpetually through the channels that are there to receive it.
— from The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Polybius

"When you can't find your gloves, because you didn't put them away carefully, is it the fault of the shape of the chest of drawers?" inquired grandmother quietly.
— from Grandmother Dear: A Book for Boys and Girls by Mrs. Molesworth

"I don't see where the romance comes in; it's just easier to see your way round."
— from Ethel Morton at Chautauqua by Mabell S. C. (Mabell Shippie Clarke) Smith

And after all this preparation, the situation proves to be a familiar trick of theatrical thimble-rigging: you lift the thimble, and instead of Pea A, behold Pea B!--instead of Lady Saumarez it is Mrs. Trevelyan who is concealed in Isidore de Lorano's bedroom.
— from Play-Making: A Manual of Craftsmanship by William Archer

The best thing about Labuan is, perhaps, the excellence of its fruit, notably of its pumeloes, oranges and mangoes, for which the Colony is indebted to the present Sir Hugh Low , who was one of the first officials under Sir James Brooke , and a man who left no stone unturned in his efforts to promote the prosperity of the island.
— from British Borneo Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan, and North Borneo by Treacher, W. H. (William Hood), Sir

What is it that compels these men to make the false reflection that the existing order is invariable and, therefore, must be maintained, whereas it is evident that, on the contrary, it is unchangeable only because it is maintained as such?
— from The Kingdom of God is Within You / Christianity and Patriotism / Miscellanies by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

[131] Laguna Colorada is in the northeastern part of what is now Quay County, New Mexico, about twelve miles west of Tucumcari Mount.
— from Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies, 1831-1839, part 2 by Josiah Gregg

I put aside the whole idea of a new treaty, constituting in itself a new transaction, and involving the concurrence of the foreign power.
— from Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 05 (of 20) by Charles Sumner

When a Jew buys a chicken, it is because either the Jew is sick or the chicken is sick.
— from Anathema: A Tragedy in Seven Scenes by Leonid Andreyev

Of course it is hard enough for those, most natively disposed that way, to strike fire.
— from At Home And Abroad; Or, Things And Thoughts In America and Europe by Margaret Fuller