I was disposed straightway to search for other truths and when I had represented to myself the object of the geometers, which I conceived to be a continuous body or a space indefinitely extended in length, breadth, and height or depth, divisible into divers parts which admit of different figures and sizes, and of being moved or transposed in all manner of ways (for all this the geometers suppose to be in the object they contemplate), I went over some of their simplest demonstrations.
— from Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences by René Descartes

He then recapitulated as modestly as possible his own daring deeds in the various battles.
— from The Anabasis of Alexander or, The History of the Wars and Conquests of Alexander the Great by Arrian

March 1st, 1778, Third day eve.—Such a ride as I have had, O dear Debby!
— from American Historical and Literary Curiosities: Second Series, Complete by J. Jay (John Jay) Smith

Violante, in order that no harm might come to Pietro, told her a story of her own devising, disguising the truth in other forms.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

He that is such, is he surely that doth not put off to lay hold on that which is best indeed, a very priest and minister of the gods, well acquainted and in good correspondence with him especially that is seated and placed within himself, as in a temple and sacrary: to whom also he keeps and preserves himself unspotted by pleasure, undaunted by pain; free from any manner of wrong, or contumely, by himself offered unto himself: not capable of any evil from others: a wrestler of the best sort, and for the highest prize, that he may not be cast down by any passion or affection of his own; deeply dyed and drenched in righteousness, embracing and accepting with his whole heart whatsoever either happeneth or is allotted unto him.
— from Meditations by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius

Where, before he unlocks the secrets of the great deep, he seems to be seized with a religious horror, and to retire astonished at the boldness of his own design: Dii, quibus imperium est animarum, umbræque silentes !
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

The sturdy hind now attends the levee of his fellow-labourer the ox; the cunning artificer, the diligent mechanic, spring from their hard mattress; and now the bonny housemaid begins to repair the disordered drum-room, while the riotous authors of that disorder, in broken interrupted slumbers, tumble and toss, as if the hardness of down disquieted their repose.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

"In the devastating hour of death, deliver us, O Lady.
— from Primitive Christian Worship Or, The Evidence of Holy Scripture and the Church, Against the Invocation of Saints and Angels, and the Blessed Virgin Mary by James Endell Tyler

“O, but the difficulty is,” said his father, “that the shadow will not come to the same places, at the same hours, on different days.
— from Rollo's Experiments by Jacob Abbott

At the time that we speak of, this palace was a hostelry that was the sixth of the hostelries of Ireland.; there were beside it the hostelry of Da Derga in the land of Cualan in Leinster; also the hostelry of Forgall the Wily, which is beside Lusk; and the hostelry of Da Reo in Breffny; and the hostelry of Da Choca in the west of Meath; and the hostelry of the landholder Blai in the country of the men of Ulster.
— from Heroic Romances of Ireland, Translated into English Prose and Verse — Complete by Arthur Herbert Leahy

It was at the house of Dr. Dow, a medical gentleman of culture and great skill in his profession here.
— from Woman, Church & State The Original Exposé of Male Collaboration Against the Female Sex by Matilda Joslyn Gage

Famine naturally followed, and some 30,000 natives perished of hunger or disease despite all that Sir George Grey, who, in 1854, had become Governor at Cape Town, could do for them in a hurried supply of provisions and work.
— from South Africa and the Boer-British War, Volume I Comprising a History of South Africa and its people, including the war of 1899 and 1900 by J. Castell (John Castell) Hopkins

That friend of humanity, so little recognized in his true light, has a habit of drawing down leaves into his subterranean nest, and there eating them up, so as to convert their remains into vegetable mould in the form of worm-casts.
— from Science in Arcady by Grant Allen

“Shall we stand and tremble till the pestilence slays us all 273 with its arrows, even as a herd of deer, driven into a deep gulch and surrounded, stand till they are shot down by the hunters?
— from The Bridge of the Gods A Romance of Indian Oregon. 19th Edition. by Frederic Homer Balch

He then reflected upon the immense number of doctrines, now in the world, which had given rise to many hundreds of different denominations.
— from An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions And of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records by Orson Pratt