The interest which the borrower can afford to pay is in proportion to the clear profit only.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

And he who desires to understand Shakespeare truly must understand the relations in which Shakespeare stood to the Renaissance and the Reformation, to the age of Elizabeth and the age of James; he must be familiar with the history of the struggle for supremacy between the old classical forms and the new spirit of romance, between the school of Sidney, and Daniel, and Johnson, and the school of Marlowe and Marlowe’s greater son; he must know the materials that were at Shakespeare’s disposal, and the method in which he used them, and the conditions of theatric presentation in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, their limitations and their opportunities for freedom, and the literary criticism of Shakespeare’s day, its aims and modes and canons; he must study the English language in its progress, and blank or rhymed verse in its various developments; he must study the Greek drama, and the connection between the art of the creator of the Agamemnon and the art of the creator of Macbeth; in a word, he must be able to bind Elizabethan London to the Athens of Pericles, and to learn Shakespeare’s true position in the history of European drama and the drama of the world.
— from Intentions by Oscar Wilde

The dreadful condition to which he was brought, was so appalling to both of us, that we could not refer to it in plainer words.
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

It is particularly desirable that a force should be got through to the railroad between Cleveland and Dalton, and Longstreet thus cut off from communication with the South, but being confronted by a large force here, strongly located, it is not easy to tell how this is to be effected until the result of our first effort is known.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant

It is pretty certain that the Cherokee formerly had some acquaintance with whales, which, about the year 1700, according to Lawson, were “very numerous” on the coast of North Carolina, being frequently stranded along the shore, so that settlers derived considerable profit from the oil and blubber.
— from Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology by James Mooney

Lucy's eyes turned with anxious interest toward Maggie to see how she went through this first interview, since a sadly memorable time, with a man toward whom she must have so strange a mixture of feelings; but she was pleased to notice that Wakem had tact enough to enter at once into talk about the bazaar wares, and appear interested in purchasing, smiling now and then kindly at Maggie, and not calling on her to speak much, as if he observed that she was rather pale and tremulous.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

And I, a man, and such a man, sought to conceive of Thee the sovereign, only, true God; and I did in my inmost soul believe that Thou wert incorruptible, and uninjurable, and unchangeable; because though not knowing whence or how, yet I saw plainly, and was sure, that that which may be corrupted must be inferior to that which cannot; what could not be injured I preferred unhesitatingly to what could receive injury; the unchangeable to things subject to change.
— from The Confessions of St. Augustine by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

By means of our semi-barbarity in body and in desire, we have secret access everywhere, such as a noble age never had; we have access above all to the labyrinth of imperfect civilizations, and to every form of semi-barbarity that has at any time existed on earth; and in so far as the most considerable part of human civilization hitherto has just been semi-barbarity, the "historical sense" implies almost the sense and instinct for everything, the taste and tongue for everything: whereby it immediately proves itself to be an IGNOBLE sense.
— from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

THE PICKPOCKET: His life is in peril.
— from Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand

"You must not say a word about it to Carmilla, because she can see down that walk from her room window," I interposed, "and she is, if possible, a greater coward than I." Carmilla came down rather later than usual that day.
— from Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Illicit drugs: cocaine: worldwide coca leaf cultivation in 2007 amounted to 232,500 hectares; Colombia produced slightly more than two-thirds of the worldwide crop, followed by Peru and Bolivia; potential pure cocaine production decreased 7% to 865 metric tons in 2007; Colombia conducts an aggressive coca eradication campaign, but both Peruvian and Bolivian Governments are hesitant to eradicate coca in key growing areas; 551 metric tons of export-quality cocaine (85% pure) is documented to have been seized or destroyed in 2005; US consumption of export quality cocaine is estimated to have been in excess of 380 metric tons opiates: worldwide illicit opium poppy cultivation continued to increase in 2007, with a potential opium production of 8,400 metric tons, reaching the highest levels recorded since estimates began in mid-1980s; Afghanistan is world's primary opium producer, accounting for 95% of the global supply; Southeast Asia - responsible for 9% of global opium - saw marginal increases in production; Latin America produced 1% of global opium, but most was refined into heroin destined for the US market; if all potential opium was processed into pure heroin, the potential global production would be 1,000 metric tons of heroin in 2007 page last updated on November 11, 2009
— from The 2009 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency

Each lives in a cell, which it begins to construct almost immediately after it is hatched; and the little structure is at once a house which protects the caterpillar from its enemies, and a store of food for its subsistence, while it remains shut up in its prison.
— from Insect Architecture by James Rennie

10 A standard single cylinder air pump 11 A horizontal steam engine 12 A fireless cooker 13 A loud speaking telephone largely used on ship-board 14 A common electric bell 15 An ordinary telegraph sounder 16 A telautograph 17 The gyro compass of a ship 18 A twelve inch rule 19 A pair of cheap compasses 19 An isometric perspective drawing of a box 20 Top, side and end view of same 20 Cross-section of same; drawing of hook 21 Side view of a steam engine 22 End view of same 23 Top view of same 24 Cross-section of same 24 The side valve shown in detail 25 An isometric perspective drawing of a steam engine 25 A sheet of isometric drawing paper 26 First step in isometric perspective drawing 27 The next step in isometric perspective drawing 27 A crank shaft drawn on isometric paper 28 A drawing board ; a triangular scale 29 A set of inexpensive drawing instruments ; a protractor 30 The position of the protractor on paper 31 The proportion of an isometric ellipse 32 How ellipses stand out in relief 33 How an isometric ellipse is drawn 34 Shading and lettering chart for drawings 35 Chart of electrical symbols 37, 38 A simple wiring diagram 39 Aids to drawing a manikin ; proportions drawn on cross-section paper ; trial positions of manikin 40-42 Cardboard model of a gyro engine 44 The Official Gazette; Patent specifications; Index to Patents 53 A lever of the first class ; a pair of pliers 63 A lever of the second class ; wire splicing clamps 63 A lever of the third class ; a pair of sugar tongs 64 A bent lever
— from Inventing for Boys by A. Frederick (Archie Frederick) Collins

“We know that revelation has only an inward mission to the individual soul; the Catholic believes in its public mission for universal civilisation.”
— from Luther, vol. 5 of 6 by Hartmann Grisar

But I do not smoke as common people do, for the fun of it or because it is pleasant.
— from The Quest The authorized translation from the Dutch of De kleine Johannes by Frederik van Eeden

It is a little tiresome," he added with another sigh, "for it is part of the spell that I shall have to be executed if I fail."
— from The Other Side of the Sun: Fairy Stories by Evelyn Sharp

she said, withdrawing her hand as if it pained her.
— from The Lily of the Valley by Honoré de Balzac

If there be a beacon station at the air navigator's destination, it is possible for him to direct his course so that the craft is always headed for the beacon; and in due time he will reach his objective.
— from Flying the Atlantic in Sixteen Hours With a Discussion of Aircraft in Commerce and Transportation by Brown, Arthur Whitten, Sir