It provides an axis which runs through an immense diversity of detail; it causes different experiences, facts, items of information to fall into order with one another.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey

After this their happiness depends upon their self-control; if the better elements of the mind which lead to order and philosophy prevail, then they pass their life here in happiness and harmony—masters of themselves and orderly—enslaving the vicious and emancipating the virtuous elements of the soul; and when the end comes, they are light and winged for flight, having conquered in one of the three heavenly or truly Olympian victories; nor can human discipline or divine inspiration confer any greater blessing on man than this.
— from Phaedrus by Plato

Of one thing I am certain, that considering how highly the small portion which we have of the table-talk and other anecdotes of our celebrated writers is valued, and how earnestly it is regretted that we have not more, I am justified in preserving rather too many of Johnson's sayings, than too few; especially as from the diversity of dispositions it cannot be known with certainty beforehand, whether what may seem trifling to some, and perhaps to the collector himself, may not be most agreeable to many; and the greater number that an authour can please in any degree, the more pleasure does there arise to a benevolent mind.
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson Abridged and edited, with an introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood by James Boswell

I had a good deal of difficulty in controlling myself, but I was afraid of her telling the marchioness everything.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

The great demon of diseases in Ceylon is entitled Maha Cola Sanni Yakseya.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

"The land of Cyclops first, a savage kind, Nor tamed by manners, nor by laws confined: Untaught to plant, to turn the glebe, and sow, They all their products to free nature owe: The soil, untill'd, a ready harvest yields, With wheat and barley wave the golden fields; Spontaneous wines from weighty clusters pour, And Jove descends in each prolific shower, By these no statues and no rights are known, No council held, no monarch fills the throne; But high on hills, or airy cliffs, they dwell, Or deep in caves whose entrance leads to hell.
— from The Odyssey by Homer

[197] An eminent Catholic theologian asserts that saints who, since the time of Jesus Christ, have been endowed with the power of working miracles, have always made use of the sign of the cross in driving out demons, in curing maladies, and in raising the dead.
— from The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. (Walter Yeeling) Evans-Wentz

For the moment my pulse ceased beating, and then, knowing that the time had come when I must either do or die, I called vehemently to those who were holding the ropes (some thirty men) to let go at once, and made gestures signifying danger, and that there would be mischief if they held on longer.
— from Erewhon; Or, Over the Range by Samuel Butler

"Out of the mouth of the Mother of God, More than the doors of doom, I call the muster of Wessex men From grassy hamlet or ditch or den, To break and be broken, God knows when,
— from The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

But--and there is a but--gentlemen, you must select another delegate, or delegation, in case circumstances arise--" Denning's voice interrupted from the end of the table.
— from Out of the Ashes by Ethel Watts Mumford Grant

A still more recent modification of turning the child in arm and shoulder presentations has been proposed by Dr. v. Deutsch, of Dorpat: it consists in raising the presenting part, and at the same time turning the child upon its long axis, as the hand placed in the axilla carries the shoulder to the upper parts of the uterus, after which, as the hand descends, it brings the feet along with it into the vagina.
— from A System of Midwifery by Edward Rigby

Thus still repentance is deferred, From one day to another: Until the day of death is come, And judgment is the other.
— from Life and Literature Over two thousand extracts from ancient and modern writers, and classified in alphabetical order by John Purver Richardson

4:20 Destruction on destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, and my curtains in a moment.
— from The World English Bible (WEB), Complete by Anonymous

This Dercylus or Dercyllus is connected in a singular manner with another historian, the very same quotations being sometimes made from both. See Athen.
— from The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 2 of 2 by Karl Otfried Müller

This struck me as so singular a circumstance, that I resolved to have a good look at the other individuals who had come off to us, and who were doubtless on deck in confabulation with the skipper.
— from Under the Meteor Flag: Log of a Midshipman during the French Revolutionary War by Harry Collingwood

These subtle delicacies of diction I could enjoy only by devoting the next seven or eight years of my life to the study of Greek and Latin.
— from Idle Ideas in 1905 by Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome

Damon and Pythias , two Pythagoreans of Syracuse of the days of Dionysius I., celebrated for their friendship; upon the latter having been condemned to death, and having got leave to go home to arrange his affairs beforehand, the former pledged his life for his return, when just as, according to his promise, he presented himself at the place of execution, Pythias turned up and prepared to put his head on the block; this behaviour struck the tyrant with such admiration, that he not only extended pardon to the offender, but took them both into his friendship.
— from The Nuttall Encyclopædia Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge by P. Austin Nuttall

"There is a great deal of difference in curates as well as in other things," said the indignant woman.
— from The Perpetual Curate by Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant