Of the Mortal Gods; and the judgment of Chrysippus, that “Dion was as virtuous as God;” and my Seneca himself says, that “God had given him life; but that to live well was his own;” conformably to this other: In virtute vere gloriamur; quod non contingeret, si id donum Deo, non nobis haberemus: “We truly glory in our virtue; which would not be, if it was given us of God, and not by ourselves;” this is also Seneca’s saying; “that the wise man hath fortitude equal with God, but that his is in spite of human frailty, wherein therefore he more than equals God.”
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Thy peers, with keen far-reaching eyes, Spend not their hours in ceaseless sighs; In dire distress, in whelming ill Their manly looks are hopeful still.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

High above all, the cathedral spire is drawn dark in the morning mist, and often in the clear summer evenings it comes brightly in slanting sunshine against the steep woods behind.
— from The Intellectual Life by Philip Gilbert Hamerton

For coordinates, in all previous systems, had been deduced from distance; to use any existing coordinate system in defining distance was, accordingly, to incur a vicious circle.
— from An essay on the foundations of geometry by Bertrand Russell

‘And now, of course,’ wrote Catherine, ‘she is desperately disappointed that mamma and Agnes cannot join her in town, as she had hoped.
— from Robert Elsmere by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

The range had grown richer in color, almost black, except when the sun shot for a moment his presence in temporary triumph against a spur, that glistened responsively, while the cañons scowled in dark disapproval.
— from Mariposilla: A Novel by Mary Stewart Daggett

Our common Tellina radiata, familiarly called sunshell, is found in Florida and the West Indies, and a typical valve looks not unlike the horizon at sunrise, the brilliant rays of 30 color spreading in different directions from a common center.
— from Birds and Nature Vol. 09 No. 1 [January 1901] by Various

Our Court set is dowdy, dull to a degree, and common in a different fashion.
— from The Double Traitor by E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim