They have got our lands and now they are preparing to fleece us of the money accruing from the treaty.
— from Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology by James Mooney

They are religious excessively beyond all other men, and with regard to this they have customs as follows:—they drink from cups of bronze and rinse them out every day, and not some only do this but all: they wear garments of linen always newly washed, and this they make a special point of practice: they circumcise themselves for the sake of cleanliness, preferring to be clean rather than comely.
— from An Account of Egypt by Herodotus

Man has done nothing but invent God so as to go on living, and not kill himself; that’s the whole of universal history up till now.
— from The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The boy seemed to have begun with the generals of life, and never to have concerned himself with the particulars.
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

As regards this transaction, Abraham is in no way to be branded as guilty concerning this concubine, for he used her for the begetting of progeny, not for the gratification of lust; and not to insult, but rather to obey his wife, who supposed it would be a solace of her barrenness if she could make use of the fruitful womb of her handmaid to supply the defect of her own nature, and by that law of which
— from The City of God, Volume II by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

And this view is rendered particularly probable by the fact that an imagined visual object may, if attention be concentrated upon it long enough, acquire before the mind's eye almost the brilliancy of reality, and (in the case of certain exceptionally gifted observers) leave a negative after-image of itself when it passes away (see Chapter XVIII).
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James

But then, people in one's own grade of life are not usually embarrassing objects.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain

One glimpse, one last and never-to-be-forgotten glimpse I had of that dull level wilderness—which was now to become my Universe again—spread out before my eye.
— from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Illustrated) by Edwin Abbott Abbott

You should have gone on long ago, now you won’t get there till evening.”
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

The manufacturer of Alapaca cloths—a most beautiful fabric of recent introduction—and their extensive use, has not only led to this increased demand, but has enhanced the price of this kind of wool, which will undoubtedly be maintained, as new fabrics requiring to be made from long wools, especially for the garments of ladies, are now being introduced in great variety, and are becoming daily more popular and of more general use.
— from Address delivered by Hon. Henry H. Crapo, Governor of Michigan, before the Central Michigan Agricultural Society, at their Sheep-shearing Exhibition held at the Agricultural College Farm, on Thursday, May 24th, 1866 by Henry Howland Crapo

The Vistre and Vidourle which formerly emptied themselves into the Gulf of Lyons, are now received by the Etangs de Manjo and Aiguesmortes, that is to say, the part of the Gulf of Lyons which formerly received, and still receives those rivers, is now cut off from the sea by a bar of sand, which has been thrown up in it, and has formed it into sounds.
— from The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 9 (of 9) Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private by Thomas Jefferson

We ask ourselves with surprise, whether some extraordinary revolutions may have carried away the earth and plants; or whether the granite nucleus of our planet shows itself bare, because the germs of life are not yet developed on all its points.
— from Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 2 by Alexander von Humboldt

Of Austrian states-deputies and councillors, the following were in the city:—George von Puechhaim, governor of Lower Austria; Nicholaus Rabenhaupt, chancellor; Rudolph von Hohenfeld, Felician von Pottschach, privy councillors; John von Greissenegg, commandant of Vienna, and of the foot militia of the city; Melchior von Lamberg; Trajan von Auersberg; Bernardin Ritschen; Helfreich von Meggun; Erasmus von Obritschen; Raimund von Dornberg; Otto von Achterdingen; John Apfalterer; Siegfried von Kollonitsch; Reinbrecht von Ebersdorf; and Hans von Eibenswald.
— from The Sieges of Vienna by the Turks by Karl August Schimmer

We then observe the block transferred to land, and carved into the rough semblance of a bull, in which form it is placed on a rude sledge and conveyed along level land by gangs of laborers, arranged nearly as before, to the foot of the mound at whose top it has to be placed.
— from The World's Progress, Vol. 01 (of 10) With Illustrative texts from Masterpieces of Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Modern European and American Literature by Delphian Society

Not a gleam of light appeared; not a sound reached us.
— from Beyond the Frontier: A Romance of Early Days in the Middle West by Randall Parrish

For my own part, I wish to live under a government of laws, and not of men; for, however pure and upright be the intentions of our military commanders, however virtuous, and even unsuspected be their conduct, I can never agree that my right to personal liberty shall depend on their forbearance and discretion.
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 3 (of 16) by United States. Congress

Bishop Butler tells us that “Probability is the guide of life,” and not less true is it that probability is likewise the guide of science.
— from The Scientific Evidences of Organic Evolution by George John Romanes