The memory is loaded with unintelligible words, to make a show of, without the understanding's acquiring any distinct ideas: but only that education deserves emphatically to be termed cultivation of mind, which teaches young people how to begin to think.
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects by Mary Wollstonecraft

Giacomo Casanova was born in Venice, of Spanish and Italian parentage, on April 2, 1725; he died at the Chateau of Dux, in Bohemia, on June 4, 1798.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

As I mounted the estràde (a low platform, raised a step above the flooring), where stood the teacher's chair and desk, I beheld opposite to me a row of eyes and brows that threatened stormy weather—eyes full of an insolent light, and brows hard and unblushing as marble.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

Principles of self-love may, indeed, contain universal precepts of skill (how to find means to accomplish one's purpose), but in that case they are merely theoretical principles; * as, for example, how he who would like to eat bread should contrive a mill; but practical precepts founded on them can never be universal, for the determining principle of the desire is based on the feeling pleasure and pain, which can never be supposed to be universally directed to the same objects.
— from The Critique of Practical Reason by Immanuel Kant

325 These words (holpen a little with a metaphor) may express two different abilities in those that deal in business of estate; for if a true survey be taken of counsellors and statesmen, there may be found (though rarely) those which can make a small state great, and yet cannot fiddle: as, on the other side there will be found a great many that can fiddle very cunningly, but yet are so far from being able to make a small state great, as their gift lieth the other way,—to bring a great and flourishing estate to ruin and decay.
— from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon

It would be better for me not to do it, but one must stand up for the right.”
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Def. iii.), but, on the other hand (by hypothesis), we conceive certain things excluding its present existence.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza

J'évite d'être long, et je deviens obscur —In 45 avoiding to be diffuse, I become obscure.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

One denier, cried the order of mercy—one single denier, in behalf of a thousand patient captives, whose eyes look towards heaven and you for their redemption.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

When Columbus first sighted the Isle of Trinidad he discerned three mountain peaks rising from the sea, thus conveying the impression of three distinct islands; but on approaching nearer he discovered that they formed one piece of land only; wherefore [56] he gave the island the name of the Trinity, of which it was so eminently an emblem.
— from Names: and Their Meaning; A Book for the Curious by Leopold Wagner

The real marriage is back of the ceremony, and the real divorce is back of the decree.
— from The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Complete Contents Dresden Edition—Twelve Volumes by Robert Green Ingersoll

I could not jump down his throat with, ‘Sir, would you kindly tell me whether your daughter is betrothed or not?’
— from The Ink-Stain (Tache d'encre) — Complete by René Bazin

The chief amusements of the Maya were comedies and dances, in both of which they exhibited much skill and ingenuity.
— from An Introduction to the Study of the Maya Hieroglyphs by Sylvanus Griswold Morley

When they met with nations that were not corrupted, and were not deficient in bravery or patriotism, their career was checked.
— from The History of the Crusades (vol. 3 of 3) by J. Fr. (Joseph Fr.) Michaud

As an example of the difference in both outline and detail which took place in design, let the reader notice the form of the Louis Quatorze commode vignetted for the initial letter of this chapter, and then turn to the lighter and more fanciful cabinets of somewhat similar shape which will be found illustrated in the "Louis Quinze" section which follows this.
— from Illustrated History of Furniture: From the Earliest to the Present Time by Frederick Litchfield

He is himself inclined (though knowing nothing of Paracca when I last saw him), to see two hands in the work—and here he is probably right, but I hardly think Rossetti would have signed as he did if Bargnola or Paracca had done the greater part or even half of it.
— from Ex Voto: An Account of the Sacro Monte or New Jerusalem at Varallo-Sesia With Some Notice of Tabachetti's Remaining Work at the Sanctuary of Crea by Samuel Butler

It was pitch dark in back of the jeep’s headlights.
— from Mystery of the Ambush in India: A Biff Brewster Mystery Adventure by Andy Adams

At this time there dwelt in Burgundy, on the Rhine, a young princess of such rare virtue and beauty that noble youths had come from every land to win her as a bride.
— from Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 3 by Charles Herbert Sylvester

It is likewise stated that when a Brahman king grew old and ill he was obliged to abdicate in favor of his son and voluntarily seek death in battle or by starvation, whilst wandering towards the holy mountain Meru, in the northwest.
— from The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical Systems by Zelia Nuttall