A distemper of youth, curable by small doses of repentance in connection with outward applications of experience.
— from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

Blank and dreary on retrospection I call them; they were not so to me then.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Philosophy, with the aid of experience, has at length banished the study of alchemy; and the present age, however desirous of riches, is content to seek them by the humbler means of commerce and industry.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

Yet, sir, so far as they have incurred your displeasure for my sake, and for no other want of duty or respect, I could wish—But I dare not say more.
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

But as this was excited only by a sort of instinct on urgent occasions, to implore assistance in case of danger, or relief in case of suffering, it could be of little use in the ordinary course of life, in which more moderate feelings prevail.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I shall not at all wonder at this variety in men’s opinions: impartial deductions of reason in controverted points being so rare, and exact ones in abstract notions not so very easy especially if of any length.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 1 and 2 by John Locke

render insufficient &c. Adj.; drain of resources, impoverish &c. (waste) 638; stint &c. (begrudge) 819; put on short allowance.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget

In the United States the distinctions of rank in civil society are slight, in political society they are null; an American, therefore, does not think himself bound to pay particular attentions to any of his fellow-citizens, nor does he require such attentions from them towards himself.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

It was worth Christ's while to spend hours of that day of Resurrection in clearing, questioning, and confirming sincere minds.
— from Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. Luke by Alexander Maclaren

We should not dare to contest directly such metaphysical relations: for the human week, with its day of rest, is such an eminently fortunate and blissful invitation, the observance of this command is accompanied by such a striking prosperity in all life-relations of a people, its non-observance by such an evident curse, and, moreover, the idea of man bearing the image of God is such a fruitful idea, satisfying equally spirit and mind, that we have to remember the possibility that the institution of the human week, with its day of rest, is certainly founded on the real relations of the life-process of that creature which bears the image of God to the activity of its divine prototype upon the earth.
— from The Theories of Darwin and Their Relation to Philosophy, Religion, and Morality by Rudolf Schmid

Dear Doctor,—I always looked upon you as a man of true virtue, and know you to be a person of sound understanding; for however I may have acted in opposition to the principles of religion, or the dictates of reason, I can honestly assure you I had always the highest veneration for both.
— from The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 10, No. 286, December 8, 1827 by Various

Of course the Dean told her she had better leave the thing alone, but it was evident that this was no more than a disclaimer of responsibility in case her efforts did more harm than good.
— from Quisanté by Anthony Hope

The essay was burnt, but he never denied or regretted its composition.
— from The Life of Abraham Lincoln, from His Birth to His Inauguration as President by Ward Hill Lamon

But reason, which gives us the denomination of rational, is completed by prenotions in the first seven years.
— from Complete Works of Plutarch — Volume 3: Essays and Miscellanies by Plutarch

No length of silence can make a truth once sounded ever cease to be: borne away out of our hearing it makes its way to the stars: dispersed or removed it cannot be lost.
— from An Englishwoman's Love-Letters by Laurence Housman

Hendrik has to rejoin his ship, unt it will take a week or so to clean oop all dose leedle things left py dose opium runners, I come mit you, too, unt if you are short ouf a mate, I can stand a watch yet.
— from Gold Out of Celebes by Aylward Edward Dingle

I am not making much money, and perhaps will hardly clear expenses this winter; but after all what matters it when I am in my grave whether I have been rich or poor, loved or hated, despised or respected, if Christ will only own me to His Father, and I be permitted a place in one of the mansions of rest.
— from The Underground Railroad A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, &c., Narrating the Hardships, Hair-Breadth Escapes and Death Struggles of the Slaves in Their Efforts for Freedom, As Related by Themselves and Others, or Witnessed by the Author. by William Still

Even the inferior degree of resemblance is created by the possession of common characters.
— from A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive by John Stuart Mill