But those who are offended at the lightness and pedantry of this subject, I would have them consider that I do not set myself for the first example of this kind, but that the same has been oft done by many considerable authors.
— from In Praise of Folly Illustrated with Many Curious Cuts by Desiderius Erasmus

The distinctively rational phase of reflective inquiry consists, as we have already seen, in the elaboration of an idea, or working hypothesis, through conjoint comparison and contrast, terminating in definition or formulation.
— from How We Think by John Dewey

Though small in numbers this mysterious society is composed of past masters in the game of intrigue, who, whilst playing apparently a minor part at political meetings, secret or otherwise, or even remaining completely silent, contrive to influence decisions with startling results.
— from Secret Societies And Subversive Movements by Nesta Helen Webster

Copsody, that I do believe indeed!
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

To Mannus they assign three sons, after whose names so many people are called; the Ingaevones, dwelling next the ocean; the Herminones, in the middle country; and all the rest, Instaevones.
— from Tacitus on Germany by Cornelius Tacitus

They understand little of the man who cite this in discredit of him!—I will call this Luther a true Great Man; great in intellect, in courage, affection and integrity; one of our most lovable and precious men.
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

But is it quite certain that I did not make a mistake?”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Again; in our concept time is duration, and duration is conceived of as unlimited.
— from Know the Truth: A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation Including Some Strictures Upon the Theories of Rev. Henry L. Mansel and Mr. Herbert Spencer by Jesse Henry Jones

It is then, of course, that I do my most brilliant thinking.
— from The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World by Margaret Vandercook

In the night a dragging fine-meshed net will capture more than by day of the plankton, because many little creatures that in daylight sink to considerable depths come to the surface at night.
— from Zoölogy: The Science of Animal Life Popular Science Library, Volume XII (of 16), P. F. Collier & Son Company, 1922 by Ernest Ingersoll

So the human mind still struggles, after thousands of centuries have contributed to its development.
— from The Story of Ab: A Tale of the Time of the Cave Man by Stanley Waterloo

He has shewn that in the Chick there is developed from the neural crest, on the roof of the mid-brain, an outgrowth on each side, very similar to the rudiment of the posterior nerves.
— from The Works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 3 (of 4) A Treatise on Comparative Embryology: Vertebrata by Francis M. (Francis Maitland) Balfour

But come, I say, come; the Iron Duke never wore a hat like that !
— from Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 101, July 4, 1891 by Various

He kept clear of many scandalous transactions, befriended the Archbishop of Cambrai as much as he could, refused to push the Port Royal des Champs to its destruction, and always had on his table a copy of the New Testament of Pere Quesnel, saying that he liked what was good wherever he found it.
— from Court Memoirs of France Series — Complete by Various

(2) It smothers the object which gives rise to it with a charm that is determined by the association of various judgments concerning beauty, which, however, are quite alien to the essence of the particular object.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Plato and Aristotle are so preserved to man, and the philosophers of modernism also; it is only the magisterial and dynamic philosophy of Christianity that is diffused through many works, some of them still untranslated and all quite without coordination, save St. Thomas Aquinas alone, the magnitude of whose product staggers the human mind and in its profuseness defeats its own ends.
— from Towards the Great Peace by Ralph Adams Cram

And besides, if promotion comes tomorrow, I don't want it."
— from The Devil's Garden by W. B. (William Babington) Maxwell