The column of light is not the Milky Way—which is neither straight, nor like a rainbow—but the imaginary axis of the earth.
— from The Republic by Plato

"In this my couch, O Lord! is now in Thine; And she, half living, I half dead within, Our beings still commingle and are twin, It cannot be that I should found a line!
— from Poems by Victor Hugo

Claudio, released from prison by the jubilant populace, informs him that the sentence of death for crimes of love is not intended for all times; messengers arrive to announce the unexpected arrival in harbour of the King; it is resolved to march in full masked procession to meet the beloved Prince, and joyously to pay him homage, all being convinced that he will heartily rejoice to see how ill the gloomy puritanism of Germany is suited to his hot-blooded Sicily.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

And if there be no such right, then the Controuler of Lawes is not Parlamentum, but Rex In Parlamento.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

This consolidation of legend is not intentional.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

She has good health; her presence itself is healthy and bracing; her character is unstain'd; she has made herself understood, and preserves her independence, and has been able to help her parents, and educate and get places for her sisters; and her course of life is not without opportunities for mental improvement, and of much quiet, uncosting happiness and love.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

Therefore, there is no real difficulty, under changing conditions of life, in natural selection accumulating to any extent slight modifications of instinct which are in any way useful.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

We go out of our course to make ourselves uncomfortable; the cup of life is not bitter enough to our palate, and we distil superfluous poison to put into it, or conjure up hideous things to frighten ourselves at, which would never exist if we did not make them.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

Therefore I can see no difficulty, under changing conditions of life, in natural selection accumulating slight modifications of instinct to any extent, in any useful direction.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

High cost of land is no detriment, provided the value is made by the pressure of people seeking residence there.
— from How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York by Jacob A. (Jacob August) Riis

The principal ship, the Prince Maurice, which had the largest number of passengers, after a long voyage, was wrecked on the South coast of Long island, near Fire island inlet, in the neighborhood of the present town of Islip.
— from Peter Stuyvesant, the Last Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam by John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott

It is well to note that the increase in the cost of living is not confined to this country, but prevails the world over, and that those who would charge increases in prices to the existing protective tariff must meet the fact that the rise in prices has taken place almost wholly in those products of the factory and farm in respect to which there has been either no increase in the tariff or in many instances a very considerable reduction.
— from State of the Union Addresses (1790-2006) by United States. Presidents

Get two lemon peels and wear them all day, one in each pocket, and at night rub the four posts of the bedstead with them; if she is to succeed, the person will appear in her sleep, and present her with a couple of lemons; if, not, there is no hope.
— from The Witches' Dream Book; and Fortune Teller Embracing full and correct rules of divination concerning dreams and visions, foretelling of future events, their scientific application to physiognomy, palmistry, moles, cards, &c.; together with the application and observance of talismen charms, spells and incantations. by A. H. Noe

He is large-minded, not through knowledge, but through the power of acquiring it; he is open-minded, intelligent, ready for anything, and, as Montaigne says, capable of learning if not learned.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

But the cunning of lunacy is not easily baffled.
— from Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 434 Volume 17, New Series, April 24, 1852 by Various

Verhaeren's command of language is not by any means unlimited.
— from Émile Verhaeren by Stefan Zweig

The Catholicism of Lingard is not considered to be a disqualification by sensible Protestants.
— from The Life of Froude by Herbert W. (Herbert Woodfield) Paul

I desire here to express to the President and Professors of Union Theological Seminary, my sense of their great kindness while I delivered the course of lectures in New York, and specially for so arranging as to allow of including the full course within eight lectures,—a form which has been retained in publication.
— from The Relations of Science and Religion The Morse Lecture, 1880 by Henry Calderwood

The standing cordage of lumber is no less, only in bulk, girth.
— from The Man in the Twilight by Ridgwell Cullum