He knows the good that results from them, and feels that species of happiness with a more lively sympathy, than any other you could represent to him; though perhaps he would not part with a shilling to make the fortune of the industrious man, whom he praises so highly.
— from An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume

And supposing that only one religion was really true, and the rest false, he imagined that the native force of truth would at last break forth and shine bright, if supported only by the strength of argument, and attended to with a gentle and unprejudiced mind; while, on the other hand, if such debates were carried on with violence and tumults, as the most wicked are always the most obstinate, so the best and most holy religion might be choked with superstition, as corn is with briars and thorns; he therefore left men wholly to their liberty, that they might be free to believe as they should see cause; only he made a solemn and severe law against such as should so far degenerate from the dignity of human nature, as to think that our souls died with our bodies, or that the world was governed by chance, without a wise overruling Providence: for they all formerly believed that there was a state of rewards and punishments to the good and bad after this life; and they now look on those that think otherwise as scarce fit to be counted men, since they degrade so noble a being as the soul, and reckon it no better than a beast’s: thus they are far from looking on such men as fit for human society, or to be citizens of a well-ordered commonwealth; since a man of such principles must needs, as oft as he dares do it, despise all their laws and customs: for there is no doubt to be made, that a man who is afraid of nothing but the law, and apprehends nothing after death, will not scruple to break through all the laws of his country, either by fraud or force, when by this means he may satisfy his appetites.
— from Utopia by More, Thomas, Saint

To which the Fiend thus answerd frowning stern.
— from The Poetical Works of John Milton by John Milton

And here let us take into serious Consideration the Right and Title they had to make this War, the Captivity, Sentence, and Execution of this Prince, and the Conscience wherewith these Tyrants have possessed themselves of vast Treasures, which they have surreptitiously and fraudulently taken away from this King, and a great many more of the Rulers of these Kingdoms.
— from A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies Or, a faithful NARRATIVE OF THE Horrid and Unexampled Massacres, Butcheries, and all manner of Cruelties, that Hell and Malice could invent, committed by the Popish Spanish Party on the inhabitants of West-India, TOGETHER With the Devastations of several Kingdoms in America by Fire and Sword, for the space of Forty and Two Years, from the time of its first Discovery by them. by Bartolomé de las Casas

Thoroughly to understand such a moment, and not to treat it wrongly, was the whole secret, and this I fully realised on that day from the absolute failure on the great singer's part to produce the right effect.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

Thence by coach, my mind being troubled for not meeting with Dr. Williams, to St. Catharine’s to look at a Dutch ship or two for some good handsome maps, but met none, and so back to Cornhill to Moxon’s, but it being dark we staid not to see any, then to coach again, and presently spying Sir W. Batten; I ‘light and took him in and to the Globe in Fleete Streete, by appointment, where by and by he and I with our solicitor to Sir F. Turner about Field’s business, and back to the Globe, and thither I sent for Dr. Williams, and he is willing to swear in my behalf against T. Trice, viz., that at T. Trice’s desire we have met to treat about our business.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Ovid finely compares a man of broken fortune to a falling column; the lower it sinks, the greater weight it is obliged to sustain.
— 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.

And even if we should see ourselves sufficiently sheltered on all sides, weariness of its own accord would not fail to arise from the depths of the heart wherein it has its natural roots, and to fill the mind with its poison.
— from Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal

Much which appears in the early writings about the power and authority of "nobles," "kings," and "emperors" among the red men was fanciful, the authors falling [Pg 14] into the error of judging Indian institutions by Old World standards.
— from The Colonies, 1492-1750 by Reuben Gold Thwaites

What a fine thing a fire is when you are cold.
— from Stronghand; or, The Noble Revenge by Gustave Aimard

The lady need only unpick the stitches along the dark lines in the larger portion of patchwork, Pg 181 when the four pieces will fit together and form a square, as shown in our illustration.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney

Fire-jets, it must be remembered, are calculated as well for turning, as for fixed pieces.
— from A System of Pyrotechny Comprehending the theory and practice, with the application of chemistry; designed for exhibition and for war. by James Cutbush

For this as for some other passages I was justly [32] attacked by an able and liberal critic in the New Edinburgh Review —as for so many absurd irrelevancies: in that situation no doubt they were so; and of this, in spite of the haste in which I had written the greater part of the book, I was fully aware.
— from The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey—Vol. 1 With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg by Thomas De Quincey

He was serious in his belief that if his motion should be adopted there would be full time allowed for an investigation of the subject.
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 2 (of 16) by United States. Congress

The Dayrah Farjadi (more common in these regions), is when the bar is fixed under Farjad, to allow for variation, which at Berberah is about 4° 50' west.
— from First Footsteps in East Africa by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir

J ULIE stands apart from them, a few paces to the left.
— from Liliom: A Legend in Seven Scenes and a Prologue by Ferenc Molnár

They knew what the issue of my "trial" would be for them and for me.
— from Under the Prophet in Utah; the National Menace of a Political Priestcraft by Frank J. Cannon