he’ll never come to any good; as the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined.”
— from The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

Yet this is not very different from saying that children must be taught through the medium of imagination as well as reason; that their minds can only develope gradually, and that there is much which they must learn without understanding.
— from The Republic by Plato

6 {330} Thus, within a year, the great apostle to the Indies had seen the quick sprouting of the seed which he had planted.
— from The Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the Era of Méiji by William Elliot Griffis

The supporting arguments grow and twist themselves in the mouths of merchant, scientist, soldier, traveler, writer, and missionary: Darker peoples are dark in mind as well as in body; of dark, uncertain, and imperfect descent; of frailer, cheaper stuff; they are cowards in the face of mausers and maxims; they have no feelings, aspirations, and loves; they are fools, illogical idiots,—"half-devil and half-child."
— from Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois

These powers enfold the Greek and Trojan train In war and discord's adamantine chain, Indissolubly strong: the fatal tie Is stretch'd on both, and close compell'd they die.
— from The Iliad by Homer

But we have the opinion of Plato affirming that all the gods are good, and that there is not one of the gods bad.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

The child, who knows nothing of these, can have no merit in giving; he gives without charity, without kindness; he is almost ashamed to give, for, to judge by your practice and his own, he thinks it is only children who give, and that there is no need for charity when we are grown up.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

He was so good as to take it immediately.
— from Lady Susan by Jane Austen

"Probably not; but you need not starve while you can get roast beef as good as this, though it is a little tough."
— from Northern Lands; Or, Young America in Russia and Prussia by Oliver Optic

The history of this Princess, who, though perhaps blamable, was nevertheless much pitied, was the general subject of conversation in the north of Germany at the time I was at Hamburg.
— from Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon by Various

The island, which is bounded by lofty precipices, is connected with the mainland only by a narrow ridge, which rises steeply from the sea, traverses the chasm, and gives access to the island by a narrow path cut in the face of the cliff, which now, as in ancient days, might be defended by a few against many.
— from King Arthur in Cornwall by W. Howship (William Howship) Dickinson

many, many pictures at which Soames had gazed a thousand times in supercilious fascination; a marvellous collection of bright, smooth gilt frames.
— from To Let by John Galsworthy

Until women get at the truth in this matter of self-deception, disappointment surely awaits upon awakening from Love's young dream.
— from The Secret of a Happy Home (1896) by Marion Harland

His right hand (which seemed to me somewhat hairy and sinewy, a sign of great strength in its owner) lay on the side of his heart; but before I could put any question to Montesinos, he, seeing me gazing at the tomb in amazement, said to me, ‘This is my friend Durandarte, flower and mirror of the true lovers and valiant knights of his time.
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

These pecuniary embarrassments, concealed as if there were some guilt attached to them, imparted a certain gravity to her character.
— from Sentimental Education; Or, The History of a Young Man. Volume 1 by Gustave Flaubert

The Edinburgh regulations of September 1497 are evidently framed upon the idea that “the contagious plage callit the grandgore,” as they term it, was propagated by simple contact, and personal intercourse, or probably even by the air.
— from Archæological Essays, Vol. 2 by James Young Simpson

Much is implied in that phrase which is not to be found in the other wording, namely, that we are affected by truth and by good, and that there is an influx of these into the human spirit.
— from Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence by Emanuel Swedenborg

After a while I noticed that she had put on the belt I’d sent her long ago as a good-bye gift, and then that it was still nearly new.
— from The White Hecatomb, and Other Stories by W. C. (William Charles) Scully