Presumably this incipient imitation of the object is the physical basis for apperception itself; the stimulus, whatever devious courses it may pursue, reconstitutes itself into an impulse to render the object again, as we acquire the accent which we often hear.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

I will be found most cunning in my patience; But,—dost thou hear?—most bloody.
— from Othello, the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare

I said in English (trusting to tone and manner to convey my meaning) that I was exceedingly sorry if I had been found to have anything contraband in my possession; that I had had no intention of evading the ordinary tolls, and that I would gladly forfeit the watch if my doing so would atone for an unintentional violation of the law.
— from Erewhon; Or, Over the Range by Samuel Butler

Evermore The simpler essence lower lies: More complex is more perfect, owning more Discourse, more widely wise."
— from The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson by Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron

It would take one hundred trains of eighteen cars to the train to transport this one tow of six hundred thousand bushels of coal, and even if it made the usual speed of fast freight lines, it would take one whole summer to put it through by rail.' When a river in good condition can enable one to save $162,000 and a whole summer's time, on a single cargo, the wisdom of taking measures to keep the river in good condition is made plain to even the uncommercial mind.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain

Even my eye trouble, which sometimes approached so parlously near to blindness, was only an effect and not a cause; for, whenever my general vital condition improved, my power of vision also increased.
— from Ecce Homo Complete Works, Volume Seventeen by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

I should have him completely in my power all the same.
— from A Doll's House : a play by Henrik Ibsen

Because when once an efficient national government is established, the best men in the country will not only consent to serve, but also will generally be appointed to manage it; for, although town or country, or other contracted influence, may place men in State assemblies, or senates, or courts of justice, or executive departments, yet more general and extensive reputation for talents and other qualifications will be necessary to recommend men to offices under the national government,—especially as it will have the widest field for choice, and never experience that want of proper persons which is not uncommon in some of the States.
— from The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton

“Nothing but the orders I carry in my pocket,” replied Archie.
— from Flemington by Violet Jacob

Wishing to judge of the taste of a German palace, we procured a Valet de Place to conduct us over this; we found it fitted up in a manner which corresponded in many points to that usual in great houses in England.
— from A tour through some parts of France, Switzerland, Savoy, Germany and Belgium, during the summer and autumn of 1814 by Richard Boyle Bernard

As a matter of fact I did not feel in the least tired, but I wanted an opportunity to think quietly over this change in my prospects; I, therefore, gladly accepted the suggestion made by Carlos and, stretching myself out beneath the shade of an adjacent clump of bush, closed my eyes and, before I knew it, was fast asleep.
— from A Middy of the King: A Romance of the Old British Navy by Harry Collingwood

If anything befell you on the route I would be crippled in making payments.”
— from Rancho Del Muerto, and Other Stories of Adventure by Various Authors, from "Outing" by Charles King

This is strikingly the case with the direct and unstudied Latinity of the first of the Latin fathers, the African Tertullian, in whom the contrast with classicism is most pronounced.
— from Anglo-Saxon Literature by John Earle

If one of my snares could be brought a trifle closer, it might provide us with the meat we certainly ought to have.
— from As It Was in the Beginning by Philip Verrill Mighels

It was an unusually beautiful one, carved in marble, probably by some Italian master-craftsman of the late fifteenth century.
— from A harum-scarum schoolgirl by Angela Brazil

Mr. Chairman, I must plead ignorance.
— from Warren Commission (05 of 26): Hearings Vol. V (of 15) by United States. Warren Commission

On the invitation of the archbishop of Vienne, in Dauphiny, he was prevailed upon to fix his residence there, and he might have lived in peace and respected, had he been satisfied to seek celebrity in medical pursuits alone.
— from The Book of Religions Comprising the Views, Creeds, Sentiments, or Opinions, of All the Principal Religious Sects in the World, Particularly of All Christian Denominations in Europe and America, to Which are Added Church and Missionary Statistics, Together With Biographical Sketches by John Hayward