“Others, to show their learning, or often from the prejudices of a school education, where they hear of nothing else, are always talking of the ancients, as something more than men, and of the moderns, as something less.
— from The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness Being a Complete Guide for a Gentleman's Conduct in All His Relations Towards Society by Cecil B. Hartley

Für eine Nation ist nur das gut was aus ihrem 40 eignen Kern und ihrem eignen allgemeinen Bedürfniss hervorgegangen, ohne Nachäffung einer andern —Only that is good for a nation which issues from its own heart's core and its own general wants, without apish imitation of another; since (it is added) what may to one people, at a certain stage, be wholesome nutriment, may perhaps prove a poison for another.
— 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.

The Mystic dwells in the mystery, is enveloped with it; it colors all his thoughts; it affects his optic nerve especially, and the commonest things get a rainbow edging from it.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 1 by Edgar Allan Poe

Moreover his senses are acute and well-practised, he knows the principles of the various trades; to work like a master of his craft he only needs experience, and experience comes with practice.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

As a matter of fact, he just balanced against sixteen bricks, when these were fixed to the short end of plank, but if he fixed them to the long end of plank he only needed eleven as balance.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney

He had other narrow escapes, and was saved by Mistress Jane Lane, the beautiful daughter of Colonel Lane.
— from English Villages by P. H. (Peter Hampson) Ditchfield

Thus he left his friends at liberty to sup with him or not, to go abroad with him or not, exactly as they inclined; and they found him still the same if some urgent business had prevented them from obeying his commands.
— from The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus A new rendering based on the Foulis translation of 1742 by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius

I happened to be a witness of the dishonour done to the muse, at the house of one of the chiefs, where two of these bards were set at a good distance, at the lower end of a long table, with a parcel of Highlanders of no extraordinary appearance, over a cup of ale.
— from The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott

Other heathen nations, whose creeds could not have directly contributed to the system of demonology, because their manners and even their very existence was unknown when it was adopted, were nevertheless involved, so soon as Europeans became acquainted with them, in the same charge of witchcraft and worship of demons brought by the Christians of the Middle Ages against the heathens of northern Europe and the Mahommedans of the East.
— from Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft by Walter Scott

He assumed that an ideal life in society was possible if everyone followed his own nature entirely and no artificial restrictions were imposed.
— from A History of China by Wolfram Eberhard

Your steady adherence to impartial justice, your quick discernment, and invariable regard to merit, wisely intended to inculcate those genuine sentiments of true honour and passion for glory, from which the greatest military achievements have been derived, first heightened our natural emulation and our desire to excel.
— from The Life of George Washington: A Linked Index to the Project Gutenberg Editions by John Marshall

In the early history of New England, a non-conformist minister, from the old country, is represented to have said, after a little experience on this side of the water, ‘I left England to get rid of my lords the bishops; but here I find in their place my lords, the brethren and sisters; save me from the latter, and let me have the former.’
— from Diary in America, Series One by Frederick Marryat

“O I assure you,” cried she, “every body was so excessive shocked you've no notion; one heard of nothing else; all the world was raving mad about it.”
— from Cecilia; Or, Memoirs of an Heiress — Volume 2 by Fanny Burney

Yet the whole train of circumstances had a supernatural air, for the Cure and Jo Portugais had not made public their experience on the eventful night; she had been educated in a land of legend and superstition, and a deep impression had been made upon her mind, giving to her other new emotions a touch of pathos, of imagination, and adding character to her face.
— from The Right of Way — Complete by Gilbert Parker

On one side we have our nearest English approach to architectural magnificence; on the other there is a long perspective of squalid buildings—smoke-begrimed, half-ruinous, and yet not altogether unlovely.
— from Highways and Byways in London by Emily Constance Baird Cook

I have already mentioned the houses of nobles, ecclesiastics, and merchants, which stood among these narrow lanes.
— from Mediæval London, Volume 1: Historical & Social by Walter Besant

And more than all, the foul aspersion upon my father's memory, which all the while I scorned it so, had lain heavily on my thoughts, this was now proved liar's spittle, and my sweet darling father had offended not even a villain.
— from Clara Vaughan, Volume 3 (of 3) by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore

As a last resort, he proposed to retrieve his tarnished reputation by wrestling with some Utgardian; whereupon the king turned into the ring his old nurse, Elli, a poor toothless crone, who brought Thor to his knees, and would have thrown him, had not the king interfered.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 15, January, 1859 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various