If monstrous forms of this kind ever do appear in a state of nature and are capable of reproduction (which is not always the case), as they occur rarely and singly, their preservation would depend on unusually favourable circumstances.
— 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

Or rather I would say that he is a child of realism who is not on speaking terms with his father.
— from Intentions by Oscar Wilde

On a more subtle comparison it will perhaps be found, to the honour of Richard Wagner's German nature, that he has acted in everything with more strength, daring, severity, and elevation than a nineteenth-century Frenchman could have done—owing to the circumstance that we Germans are as yet nearer to barbarism than the French;—perhaps even the most remarkable creation of Richard Wagner is not only at present, but for ever inaccessible, incomprehensible, and inimitable to the whole latter-day Latin race: the figure of Siegfried, that VERY FREE man, who is probably far too free, too hard, too cheerful, too healthy, too ANTI-CATHOLIC for the taste of old and mellow civilized nations.
— from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

I have also pointed out that, even if the numerical majority were allowed to exercise complete predominance by means of a corresponding majority in Parliament, yet if minorities also are permitted to enjoy the equal right due to them on strictly democratic principles, of being represented proportionally to their numbers, this provision will insure the perpetual presence in the House, by the same popular title as its other members, of so many of the first intellects in the country, that without being in any way banded apart, or invested with any invidious prerogative, this portion of the national representation will have a personal weight much more than in proportion to its numerical strength, and will afford, in a most effective form, the moral centre of resistance which is needed.
— from Considerations on Representative Government by John Stuart Mill

Therefore the conception of wrong is positive , and antecedent to the conception of right, which is negative , and simply denotes the actions performable without injury to others; in other words, without wrong being done.
— from The Basis of Morality by Arthur Schopenhauer

Individuals who have braved the usual causes of rheumatism with impunity, not unfrequently become vulnerable to these causes after venereal excesses.
— from A Treatise on the Diseases Produced By Onanism, Masturbation, Self-Pollution, and Other Excesses. by L. (Léopold) Deslandes

The only essential distinction between the human race and animals, which from time immemorial has been attributed to a special cognitive faculty peculiar to mankind, called Reason , is based upon the fact that man owns a class of representations which is not shared by any animal.
— from On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, and On the Will in Nature: Two Essays (revised edition) by Arthur Schopenhauer

First, then, I come from the city of Rome, which I need not tell you is in Italy.
— from The Finger of Fate: A Romance by Mayne Reid

This was especially observed in the case of rubrinervis , which is not of such rare occurrence as O. gigas , and which it has been possible to study in large numbers of individuals.
— from Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation by Hugo de Vries

The young knight, too, hurrying on towards the castle of Rolleboise, where Isadore, now
— from Philip Augustus; or, The Brothers in Arms by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

The whole journey was through scrub; but this was chiefly of rosewood, which is not nearly so formidable an impediment as brigalow.
— from Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia, in Search of a Route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria (1848) by T. L. (Thomas Livingstone) Mitchell

Was it the earth, I wonder, Was it the sun, the clouds, or rain, Was it night or thunder?
— from Songs for Parents by John Chipman Farrar

Tunstall, then Bishop of Durham, who was no friend to the cause of reform, was in no haste to give effect to the new legislation; and the council of the north, to which was committed the care of public affairs in that then distant corner of the realm, probably thought it advisable to refrain from enforcing it upon the people, until they were prepared, by the instructions of some eminent preacher, for receiving and obeying it.
— from John Knox by William M. (William Mackergo) Taylor