However little you may have thought about the order and development of our knowledge, you cannot deny that such a one would be in the state of almost primitive ignorance and stupidity natural to man before he has learnt anything from experience or from his fellows.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

So fierce a gale made havoc here of late Among the strange devices of our kings; Yea, shook this newer, stronger hall of ours, And from the statue Merlin moulded for us Half-wrenched a golden wing; but now—the Quest, This vision—hast thou seen the Holy Cup, That Joseph brought of old to Glastonbury?" 'So when I told him all thyself hast heard, Ambrosius, and my fresh but fixt resolve To pass away into the quiet life, He answered not, but, sharply turning, asked Of Gawain, "Gawain, was this Quest for thee?" '"Nay, lord," said Gawain, "not for such as I.
— from Idylls of the King by Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron

" "Sire," replied Brusquet, dropping on one knee, "you take the words out of my mouth in condescend
— from Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan and Lorraine, 1522-1590 by Julia Cartwright

Emilia stole up to him, and dropped on one knee: "You love them?"
— from Sandra Belloni — Volume 4 by George Meredith

"But the whole success of our scheme depends on our keeping your father out of the clutches of the officers until we land him in Mr. Horton's office in Chicago.
— from Boy Scouts on the Great Divide; Or, The Ending of the Trail by Archibald Lee Fletcher

Take your stand on any good religious lesson, learnt from whatever quarter—any piece of fresh fragment of knowledge, cut out of your inner experience—a good text from your Bible, a good prayer from your prayer-book, a good hymn from your hymn-book, a good counsel, or example of friend or teacher anywhere, which has enabled you better to know yourself, and better to know what God is,—stand fast upon it, and look out over the wide sea of your future years, and the still wider ocean of eternity p. 39 beyond, and from that green turf of duty or of knowledge you will see in the distance the islands, not of the fairies, but something far better—the islands of the blessed, of the eternal shores across the stormy waves of this troublesome world.
— from A Record of St. Cybi's Church, Holyhead and the Sermon preached after its Restoration, 1879 by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley

Emilia stole up to him, and dropped on one knee: “You love them?”
— from Sandra Belloni (originally Emilia in England) — Complete by George Meredith