So far it is a test of our intellectual worth, of which, generally speaking, the degree of our power of enduring solitude, or our love of it, is a good criterion.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer

As falcon who has long been on the wing, Who, without seeing either lure or bird, Maketh the falconer say, "Ah me, thou stoopest," Descendeth weary, whence he started swiftly, Thorough a hundred circles, and alights Far from his master, sullen and disdainful; Even thus did Geryon place us on the bottom, Close to the bases of the rough-hewn rock, And being disencumbered of our persons, He sped away as arrow from the string.
— from Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Hell by Dante Alighieri

GENTLEMEN OF THE PRESS Grossbooted draymen rolled barrels dullthudding out of Prince’s stores and bumped them up on the brewery float.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

The mutations of societies, then, from generation to generation, are in the main due directly or indirectly to the acts or the example of individuals whose genius was so adapted to the receptivities of the moment, or whose accidental position of authority was so critical that they became ferments, initiators of movement, setters of precedent or fashion, centres of corruption, or destroyers of other persons, whose gifts, had they had free play, would have led society in another direction.
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James

It is therefore manifest, that wee may dispute the Doctrine of our Pastors; but no man can dispute a Law.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

My judgment was overruled, and the troops under my command were dissipated over other parts of the country where it was thought they could render the most service.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant

Et quæ sibi quisque timebat, / Unius in miseri exitium conversa tulere —And what each man dreaded for himself, they bore lightly when diverted to the destruction of one poor wretch.
— 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.

After half an hour the deliberation was completed, and, to my surprise, the Great Circle broke up into squads and companies of fours and sixes and tens, and then each disappeared slowly and steadily with lock step, passing out of the City into the dark or only partially lighted chambers and passages that surrounded it.
— from Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey by Ingersoll Lockwood

Anon there came a damsel to the king, saying, “Sir if thou wilt fight for my lord thou shalt be delivered out of prison, but else nevermore shalt thou escape with thy life.”
— from The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by Knowles, James, Sir

I well knew that the biographer of Davy must hold himself prepared for the dissatisfaction of one party at the commendations he might bestow, and for the displeasure of the other at the penury of his praise, or the asperity of his criticism.
— from The Life of Sir Humphrey Davy, Bart. LL.D., Volume 1 (of 2) by John Ayrton Paris

The skins are drummed in this for an hour or so and dried out on poles rapidly, but not with great heat.
— from Animal Proteins by Hugh Garner Bennett

Of course, he couldn't remember what he'd done on one plane while he was on the next one above or below it.
— from Hermione and Her Little Group of Serious Thinkers by Don Marquis

While Asa was saying this, God gave him a signal of victory, and joining battle cheerfully on account of what God had foretold about it, he slew a great many of the Ethiopians; and when he had put them to flight, he pursued them to the country of Gerar; and when they left off killing their enemies, they betook themselves to spoiling them, [for the city Gerar was already taken,] and to spoiling their camp, so that they carried off much gold, and much silver, and a great deal of [other] prey, and camels, and great cattle, and flocks of sheep.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

The danger of our present situation is generally allowed; but the consequences deduced from it are so contrary to each other, as give little hopes of that unanimity which times of danger particularly require.
— from The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Volume 10 Parlimentary Debates I by Samuel Johnson

In the Grip of the Bastille Madame Dubarry Cell of Marie Antoinette in the Conciergerie The Keep or Dungeon of Vincennes Mirabeau on the Terrace of Vincennes The Great Châtelet The Temple Prison A Turnkey A Street Scene during the Massacres The Gallant Swiss The Bastille Plan of the Bastille THE DUNGEONS OF OLD PARIS.
— from The Dungeons of Old Paris Being the Story and Romance of the Most Celebrated Prisons of the Monarchy and the Revolution by Tighe Hopkins

Heretics are burned quick; [230] harlots and [Pg 242] their mates, by carting, ducking, and doing of open penance in sheets in churches and market steeds, are often put to rebuke.
— from Elizabethan England From 'A Description of England,' by William Harrison by William Harrison

"(3) In fostering an interest in civic affairs, such as 196 sanitation, clean yards, cultivating pride in making attractive in appearance the home districts of our people, and in other ways showing an interest in everything that may make up a better community life."
— from Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization by Lyman Beecher Stowe

The parish in which I live makes me pay my share for the paving and lighting of a great many streets that I never pass through; and I might plead that I am robbed to smooth the way and lighten the darkness of other people.
— from Aphorisms and Reflections from the Works of T. H. Huxley by Thomas Henry Huxley

“You’ve been dreaming of one, Phelim—nothing more.”
— from The Headless Horseman: A Strange Tale of Texas by Mayne Reid