Acts are either public or private, the former affecting the whole community, the latter only special persons and private concerns.
— from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. A to Amide Vol. 1 Part 1 by Various

It then remained to be decided whether this right of election was to be entrusted to a legislative body, the habitual representative assembly of the nation, or whether an electoral assembly should be formed for the express purpose of proceeding to the nomination of a President.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville

‘Steal by line and level’ is an excellent pass of pate; there’s another garment for’t.
— from The Tempest The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] by William Shakespeare

A promise fixes and determines the persons, without any uncertainty: But it is evident, that if men were to regulate their conduct in this particular, by the view of a peculiar interest, either public or private, they would involve themselves in endless confusion, and would render all government, in a great measure, ineffectual.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

The ethical part of philosophy they divide into the topic of inclination, the topic of good and bad, the topic of the passions, the topic of virtue, the topic of the chief good, and of primary estimation, and of actions; the topic of what things are becoming, and of exhortation and dissuasion.
— from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius

At the present day it might perhaps be vain to look in civilised Europe for customs of this sort observed for the explicit purpose of promoting the growth of vegetation.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

'Steal by line and level' is an excellent pass of pate; there's another garmet for't.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

I am seldom consulted, and still more seldom believed, and know no concern, either public or private, that has been mended or bettered by my advice.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Personally engaged in the cultivation of their land, without funds either private or public, the Peloponnesians are also without experience in long wars across sea, from the strict limit which poverty imposes on their attacks upon each other.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

Two years earlier chance threw me, immediately after the horrors of the retreat from Russia, into the midst of a charming town, where I had the enchanting prospect of passing the rest of my days.
— from On Love by Stendhal

While James was King it was inevitable that there should be exclusion; and the only question was who should be excluded, Papists or Protestants, the few or the many, a hundred thousand Englishmen or five millions.
— from The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 2 by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron

But now it is time to take care lest we should only have achieved these surprisingly smooth results through simply working out certain fool-proof mathematical exercises in addition and subtraction, and we must further inquire whether it is not merely because mathematical equations are easily put on paper that accumulation will continue ad infinitum without any friction.
— from The Accumulation of Capital by Rosa Luxemburg

[Pg 55] While the Government had been unable to fulfil its duty of protecting the lives and property of its citizens, it was also unable to exercise the elementary power of providing, through taxation, the means for its own support.
— from An American Diplomat in China by Paul S. (Paul Samuel) Reinsch

Now how either Papists or Protestants , that boast of Antiquity, can get by these plain Testimonies, let any rational Man judge.
— from An Apology for the True Christian Divinity Being an explanation and vindication of the principles and doctrines of the people called Quakers by Robert Barclay

One day I was on a visit of ceremony to the Prime Minister, and sitting in great state by his side, fifty visitors in the same hall, and five hundred clients without, when who should make his appearance but my tetric adversary, the said Aga Akbar, who came for the express purpose of presenting the Minister with a piece he had composed in defence of the prophet, and then sitting down told me he should present me with a copy that day.
— from Henry Martyn, Saint and Scholar First Modern Missionary to the Mohammedans, 1781-1812 by George Smith

In spite of everybody's very evident efforts to have everything pass off pleasantly, the evening was anything but a success.
— from The Road to Understanding by Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter

At the counter inside the entrance, piles of pukais (the warm Chinese bedding), are stacked for hire—few of the travellers carry [Pg 60] their own bedding.
— from An Australian in China Being the Narrative of a Quiet Journey Across China to Burma by George Ernest Morrison

For this very long early part of prehistory, there was little to be found but the flint tools which wandering, hunting and gathering people made, and the bones of the wild animals they ate.
— from Prehistoric Men by Robert J. (Robert John) Braidwood

One who had moved a great deal amongst the women of Yezd, assured me that they were almost invariably under the [43] impression that the less familiar words occurring in the Persian translation of the Scriptures were English, and that it was a common thing for a woman who was accustomed to the European pronunciation of Persian, to be referred to as knowing the language of the Ferangis.
— from Five Years in a Persian Town by Napier Malcolm

{206} W E the Officers, Seamen and Landmen belonging to the Ship Duke, having made several former Agreements concerning the equal sharing of Plunder, do now desire and agree, That each Man give an exact Account of all Clothes, Goods of Value, or Necessaries of any kind he had, over and above his Dividend deliver’d him at Gorgona, or had purchased of others since, to be rightly charged to him in his Account of Plunder, by the Agents appointed; and to restore whatever he had taken without the Agents Knowledge, and to prevent any Persons detaining and concealing any Goods or Riches of any kind, now or for the future, more than their respective Shares, in order to a right Distribution of Plunder, except Arms, Chests, Knives , Roman Relicks, Scizzars, Tobacco, loose Books, Pictures, and worthless Tools and Toys, and Bedding in use, which are not included in this Agreement; and those that have already only things of this kind, are not liable to a Penalty: We do voluntarily sign this, and offer our selves to be obliged firmly by these Presents, to be under the Penalty of 20 Shillings for every Shilling value taken hid or conceal’d by any of us, or removed out of any Prize without written Orders from the Commanders publickly; and that none but the Agents already named, or to be named hereafter, shall detain in Possession any Plunder; but whatever is found conceal’d shall be valued, and the Persons that hid it to be fin’d as aforesaid, which Penalty we acknowledge to be laid on us by our own Desire, Consent, and Approbation, over and above the former Penalty agreed on, That any Person shall loose his share of every Prize or Purchase taken, whether Cargo or Plunder, that conceals of either the Value of half a Piece of 8. and this to remain in Force, to the End of the Voyage.
— from A Cruising Voyage Around the World by Woodes Rogers