Can it then be thought improbable, seeing that variations useful to man have undoubtedly occurred, that other variations useful in some way to each being in the great and complex battle of life, should occur in the course of many successive generations?
— 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

If those commodities were delivered out of the public warehouse for foreign exportation, being in this case exempted from all taxes, the trade in them would be perfectly free.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

So they do not differ in their perpetual thraldom, in which both of them always exist, but in the hope, which one always has, and the other never.
— from Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal

reigned, and was employed as a store-house for the king’s toils and tents, for hunting, and for the wars, etc.; but in the 3rd of King Edward VI., the church, for the most part, to wit, the body and side aisles, with the great bell tower (a most curious piece of workmanship, graven, gilt, and enamelled, to the great beautifying of the city, and passing all other that I have seen), was undermined and blown up with gunpowder; the stone thereof was employed in building of the lord protector’s house at the Strand.
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

And since I've taught thee that the world's great vaults Are mortal and that sky is fashioned Of frame e'en born in time, and whatsoe'er Therein go on and must perforce go on The most I have unravelled; what remains Do thou take in, besides; since once for all To climb into that chariot' renowned Of winds arise; and they appeased are So that all things again... Which were, are changed now, with fury stilled; All other movements through the earth and sky Which mortals gaze upon (O anxious oft In quaking thoughts!), and which abase their minds With dread of deities and press them crushed Down to the earth, because their ignorance Of cosmic causes forces them to yield All things unto the empery of gods And to concede the kingly rule to them.
— from On the Nature of Things by Titus Lucretius Carus

When that intriguing politician fled into Spain, to avoid the persecution of his enemies, he passed through Saragossa, the capital of Arragon, where he was shewn, in the cathedral, a man, who had served seven years as a door-keeper, and was well known to every body in town, that had ever paid his devotions at that church.
— from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume

Aeroplanes fell out of the sky every afternoon, each bringing its thousands of pleasure-seekers from the uttermost parts of the earth to Capri and its delights.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

I confess I had not learned beforehand of the existence of this strong place, in the nature of a tete-du-pont, and had counted on striking him an effectual blow in the expected confusion of his crossing the Chattahoochee, a broad and deep river then to his rear.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

I hardly knew what I did, I was burning all over to that extraordinary extent; but I took Dora’s little hand and kissed it—and she let me!
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

There are errors both in the versions of Amyot and Kaltwasser which I have avoided; but I may have fallen into others.
— from Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 (of 4) by Plutarch

Then the St. Stephen's started illustrations, and he was employed by it till an agent came from Australia to discover an artist for the Sydney Bulletin .
— from The Phil May Album by Phil May

I got my heavy mackintosh over everything, but in taking off three pairs of gloves for one minute to button it the pain of my hand was literally excruciating.
— from Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, Volume 1 (of 2) Including a Summer in the Upper Karun Region and a Visit to the Nestorian Rayahs by Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird

She yearned now towards that ultimate hump of hazy woodland, and it was to remain for ever bathed in the quiet beauty which wrapped it around as Methusalem toiled up to the “Leather Bottel.”
— from Jinny the Carrier by Israel Zangwill

The blazing of the resinous fuel lights up [Pg 120] the forest for long distances in every direction, and, as may easily be imagined, the effect is wonderfully beautiful.
— from Southern Stories Retold from St. Nicholas by Various

His History of the Gauls is a work of rare merit—a work which must ever be in the hand of every one who would understand the history of antiquity.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 348 by Various

This speculation may be for good or for evil, but it tends incalculably to increase the value of such copyrights as remain in my own person; and, if a handsome and cheap edition of the whole, with notes, can be instituted in conformity with Cadell's plan, it must prove a mine of wealth, three-fourths of which will belong to me or my creditors.
— from The Journal of Sir Walter Scott From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford by Walter Scott

On the contrary, their strength and activity are every way answerable to their muscular appearance; and they exert both, in their usual employment and in their diversions, in such a manner, that there can be no doubt of their being; as yet, little debilitated by the numerous diseases that are the consequence of indolence, and an unnatural method of life.
— from A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15 Forming A Complete History Of The Origin And Progress Of Navigation, Discovery, And Commerce, By Sea And Land, From The Earliest Ages To The Present Time by Robert Kerr

Even then [Pg 843] there is reluctance to make enactments, and there is a stage of transition during which traditional customs are extended by interpretation to cover new cases and to prevent evils.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

At a quarter of a mile's distance is a clumsy square tower, the residence of the Laird of Liberton, who, in former times, with the habits of the predatory chivalry of Germany, is said frequently to have annoyed the city of Edinburgh, by intercepting the supplies and merchandise which came to the town from the southward.
— from The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Volume 2 by Walter Scott