Useful organs, however little they may be developed, unless we have reason to suppose that they were formerly more highly developed, ought not to be considered as rudimentary.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

Clattering and tocsining and hot tumult, over all the Clermontais, spreading through the Three Bishopricks: Dragoon and Hussar Troops galloping on roads and no-roads; National Guards arming and starting in the dead of night; tocsin after tocsin transmitting the alarm.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

There was so great a difference of numbers, that there were sixty heathens for every Christian man; but notwithstanding the Varings went boldly to the attack.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

But there was Anne's husband, and Christopher's friend—and more than all there were all the specters of modern life—all the hideous wheels which must turn if Anne were ever to be his—treachery to Ridgeley—the divorce court—and then, himself and Anne, living the aftermath, of it all, facing, perhaps, disillusion— "Oh, not that ," Christopher told himself, "she'd never grow less—never anything less than she is—if she could once—care—"
— from The Gay Cockade by Temple Bailey

She consented, and I went, and, since that time, sun, moon, and stars may pursue their course: I know not whether it is day or night; the whole world is nothing to me.
— from The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We understand too little of the process of development of neuroses, to create anything similar to the study of ores.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud

I will die overpowered near the head of my slain captain, and at his feet thou also shalt slip on thy face in death, so that whoso scans the piled corpses may see in what wise we rate the gold our lord gave us.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

The duke of Norfolk then moved in the house, that, since there were no hopes of having a report from the committee, the articles of faith intended to be established should be reduced to six; and a new committee be appointed to draw an act with regard to them.
— from The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part C. From Henry VII. to Mary by David Hume

It would also, for reasons not necessary to be stated here, both facilitate the frequent despatch of mails, and aid greatly in the prompt distribution of newspapers to places directly or indirectly served; would, for instance, make it practicable to place the London morning newspapers on the breakfast tables of Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester.
— from The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the History of Penny Postage, Vol. 2 (of 2) by Hill, Rowland, Sir

“Well, maybe he won’t,” echoed Martin placidly; “but whether he does or no, ’tisn’t Martin Carr will be the first to tell him he’s fallin’ short.”
— from The Deep Sea's Toll by James B. (James Brendan) Connolly

But now I set myself to work with a will, and discovered one new thing after another, until I saw how just the Professor’s criticism had been.
— from The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, May 1884, No. 8 by Chautauqua Institution

By Reason is here meant the declarations of necessary Thought as to possibility and impossibility, or the canons of contradiction, the only proper significance of the word in discussions about miracles.
— from The Contemporary Review, January 1883 Vol 43, No. 1 by Various

This Bramber" (saith Walsingham) "was saide to have imagined to bee made Duke of New Troye (the olde supposed name of London), by murthering thousands of such citizens (whose names he had billed for that purpose) as were of such likelihood to oppose him."
— from Bygone London by Frederick Ross

Ten years after this revolution, the French monarchs annexed to their crown the duchy of Normandy: the sceptre of her ancient dukes had been transmitted, by a granddaughter of William the Conqueror, to the house of Plantagenet; and the adventurous Normans, who had raised so many trophies in France, England, and Ireland, in Apulia, Sicily, and the East, were lost, either in victory or servitude, among the vanquished nations.
— from History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5 by Edward Gibbon

I thought that no one ever made such mistakes as I do, or needed the discipline that I need!”
— from Tessa Wadsworth's Discipline: A Story of the Development of a Young Girl's Life by Conklin, Nathaniel, Mrs.