Our greatest agitations have ridiculous springs and causes: what ruin did our last Duke of Burgundy run into about a cartload of sheepskins!
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Doubtless the Greek [———] phallus , was hence derived, since it has no independent meaning in Greek; and Herodotus and Diodorus expressly assert that the chief gods of Greece and their mysteries, especially the Dionysiac or Bacchic revels, in which the phallus was carried in procession, were derived from the east.
— from Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism With an Essay on Baal Worship, on the Assyrian Sacred "Grove," and Other Allied Symbols by Thomas Inman

As she drank she murmured: “Oh! heaven, what am I to do?” and the three drops of blood replied: “If your mother only knew, Her heart would surely break in two.”
— from The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

Then the Princess was compelled by her thirst to get down, and bending over the flowing water she cried and said: “Oh! heaven, what am I to do?” and the three drops of blood replied: “If your mother only knew, Her heart would surely break in two.”
— from The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

One is tempted at any rate to say that, since the craving for rationality is appeased by the identification of one { 71} thing with another, a datum which left nothing else outstanding might quench that craving definitively, or be rational in se .
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James

(Through silversilent summer air the dummy of Bloom, rolled in a mummy, rolls roteatingly from the Lion’s Head cliff into the purple waiting waters.)
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

2963 D’Anville is of opinion that the place called Haiz or Hez in the diocese of Beauvais, received its name from this people, of whom nothing else is known.
— from The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6) by the Elder Pliny

So when the projected visit to Awa came to the ears of the ministers, they pressed Sir Harry to accept it, as Tokushima lay in the direct route to Tosa, and also because they believed that the daimiô was not a dangerous opponent, but rather inclined to be a partisan of the Tycoon, if he took any side at all.
— from A Diplomat in Japan The inner history of the critical years in the evolution of Japan when the ports were opened and the monarchy restored, recorded by a diplomatist who took an active part in the events of the time, with an account of his personal experiences during that period by Ernest Mason Satow

Had any considerable alteration been made in the standard of the money, either by sinking the same quantity of silver to a lower denomination, or by raising it to a higher; had an ounce of silver, for example, instead of being coined into five shillings and two pence, been coined either into pieces which bore so low a denomination as two shillings and seven pence, or into pieces which bore so high a one as ten shillings and four pence, it would, in the one case, have hurt the revenue of the proprietor, in the other that of the sovereign.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

These excited not only the envy, but the trifling ambition of Madame Cheron, who, since she could not rival the splendour of her festivities, was desirous of being ranked in the number of her most intimate friends.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

He enjoyed at one and the same time the double distinction of being reviled in England for his aggressive republicanism, and of being denounced in America for aping the airs of the English aristocracy.
— from James Fenimore Cooper American Men of Letters by Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury

The sites of ruined cities are deserts often; but rarely is one overgrown with forest trees; as though nature were still in revolt, and had no heart for renewal, where for ages she has been ravaged and impoverished by multitudinous populations.
— from A Breeze from the Woods, 2nd Ed. by W. C. (William Chauncey) Bartlett

In the case of Kut the responsibility rested mainly with the Indian Government, to which also was due our brilliant recovery in the East when Lord Chelmsford, Sir Charles Monro, and Sir Stanley Maude--all appointed in 1916--had time to retrieve the mistakes of their predecessors in the Viceroyalty, Command-in-chief of the Indian Army, and command of the Mesopotamian forces.
— from A Short History of the Great War by A. F. (Albert Frederick) Pollard

This can be disposed of by rubbing it with the fingers.
— from Crayon Portraiture Complete Instructions for Making Crayon Portraits on Crayon Paper and on Platinum, Silver and Bromide Enlargements by Jerome A. Barhydt

About the same time the duke of Britaine returning into his countrie, vnder the conduct of sir Thomas Percie and sir Hugh Caluerlie, landed at a hauen not far from saint Malo, the fourth day of August, being receiued with vnspeakable ioy of the Britaines, as well lords as commons, so that the louing harts which they bare towards him, might well appeare, although the loue which he bare to the king of England had caused his subiects, in fauor of France, to kéepe him manie yeares foorth of his dukedome as a banished prince, but at length, they being ouercome with irkesomnesse of his long absence, with generall consents sent for him home, so that there were but few of the British nobilitie that withdrew their dutifull obedience from him, and those were onelie such as firmelie linked in seruice with the French king, were loth to forgo such roomes and dignities as vnder him they inioied; namelie, the constable of France, sir Berthram de Cleaquin, the lord Clisson, the lord de Rohen, and the lord Rochfort, and certeine others.
— from Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (12 of 12) Richard the Second, the Second Sonne to Edward Prince of Wales by Raphael Holinshed

In these passages the terms "buried" and "planted" are in plain allusion to the manner in which the saints had received the ordinance of baptism, which could not have been by sprinkling or pouring, as there is no burial or planting in the likeness of Christ's death, or being raised in the likeness of his resurrection in that; but in immersion there is.—"The Gospel" (Roberts), page 185.
— from A New Witness for God (Volume 1 of 3) by B. H. (Brigham Henry) Roberts

As it is, with the numerous drawbacks of bad roads, indifferent coach service, and rough accommodation, they come in yearly increasing numbers.
— from Forty Thousand Miles Over Land and Water The Journal of a Tour Through the British Empire and America by Ethel Gwendoline Vincent

This is one of the disadvantages of being reared in a little heaven of domestic love.
— from Vixen, Volume I. by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

I'm afraid you've a deal of bile ; really, it ought to be looked after; if you can just get rid of it you'll be a deal more comfortable."
— from Fairy Fingers A Novel by Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt Ritchie