From what has just been said, it is easy to see how it happens that, although the conception of duty implies subjection to the law, we yet ascribe a certain dignity and sublimity to the person who fulfils all his duties.
— from Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals by Immanuel Kant

Now this was in reality no better than a pretense and a cloak for the barbarity which was made use of by them, and to color over their own avarice, which they afterwards made evident by their own actions; for those that were partners with them in their rebellion joined also with them in the war against the Romans, and went further lengths with them in their impudent undertakings against them; and when they were again convicted of dissembling in such their pretenses, they still more abused those that justly reproached them for their wickedness.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus

CXIII Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind; And that which governs me to go about Doth part his function and is partly blind, Seems seeing, but effectually is out; For it no form delivers to the heart Of bird, of flower, or shape which it doth latch: Of his quick objects hath the mind no part, Nor his own vision holds what it doth catch; For if it see the rud'st or gentlest sight, The most sweet favour or deformed'st creature, The mountain or the sea, the day or night: The crow, or dove, it shapes them to your feature.
— from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare

For it no form delivers to the heart Of bird, of flower, or shape which it doth latch, Of his quick objects hath the mind no part, Nor his own vision holds what it doth catch: For if it see the rud’st or gentlest sight, The most sweet favour or deformed’st creature, The mountain, or the sea, the day, or night: The crow, or dove, it shapes them to your feature.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

Why longer tarry we to win Our crown of dire inevitable sin? Take up thy sword, O poor right hand of mine, Thy sword: then onward to the thin-drawn line Where life turns agony.
— from Medea of Euripides by Euripides

Of his Consular experiences at Crefeld the following is the only one which found its way into literature: “The Consul’s chief duty was to uphold the flag of his own country by the examination and certification of divers invoices sent to his office by the manufacturers.
— from The Life of Bret Harte, with Some Account of the California Pioneers by Henry Childs Merwin

About this time another cause of discord is said to have put a further strain upon the relations subsisting between the Saint and the Árd-Rí.
— from An Irish Precursor of Dante A Study on the Vision of Heaven and Hell ascribed to the Eighth-century Irish Saint Adamnán, with Translation of the Irish Text by Charles Stuart Boswell

If, therefore, you are not perfectly capable of doing it, state the fact only, which some or other of your auditors [188] will most probably support, as it is pretty generally known.
— from How to Behave and How to Amuse: A Handy Manual of Etiquette and Parlor Games by George H. (George Henry) Sandison

I might promise not to sign a money-lender's bill on my own account, though really I think you take rather an exaggerated view of what is, after all, a common occurrence—" "Do I?" said the Colonel meekly.
— from What Will He Do with It? — Volume 07 by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron

On the historical site, too, we know that Cruzate on the occasion of the attempted reconquest of the country visited this village in 1692, and the ruin must therefore be less than two centuries old, yet the completeness of destruction is such that over most of its area no standing wall is seen, and the outlines of the houses and groups are indicated mainly by low ridges and masses of broken-down masonry, partly covered by the drifting sands.
— from A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 3-228 by Victor Mindeleff

I admired the appearance of the Baltic Sea, which evidently seemed to have been introduced between those countries by the sudden splitting of the land, and that originally Sweden was united to the western coast of Denmark; in short, the whole interstice of the Gulf of Finland had no being, until these countries, by mutual consent, separated from one another.
— from The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolf Erich Raspe

So fine a conception of duty is scarcely to be found in Deborah's song, but, realized or not in Old Testament times, it was the revelation of God through Israel to the world.
— from The Expositor's Bible: Judges and Ruth by Robert A. (Robert Alexander) Watson

"Make me a large and handsomely wrought gilded handle to the key of that dark chest of drawers," I said to the furnisher.
— from Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works by Oliver Wendell Holmes

So as a good angel cannot be the cause of deception, it seems that he cannot cause the imaginative vision, by changing the imagination.
— from Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars) From the Complete American Edition by Thomas, Aquinas, Saint