They are listened to, esteemed, and respected by their superiors; but before their inferiors they are frequently incapable of defending, effectually, and to the conviction of such hearers, their own sober and moderate doctrines, against the most ignorant enthusiast who chooses to attack them.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

To-day the moon, in order due, Entered the sign Punarvasu, 267 To-morrow, as the wise foretell, In Pushya's favouring stars will dwell: Then on the throne shalt thou be placed.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

Suddenly, as I was trying to make up my mind what to do, with a convulsive movement that somehow gave an impression of despairing energy, the woman rose to her feet and cast the dark cloak from her.
— from She by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

] Note 16 ( return ) [ The heretics abused the passionate exclamation of "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Rousseau, who has drawn an eloquent, but indecent, parallel between Christ and Socrates, forgets that not a word of impatience or despair escaped from the mouth of the dying philosopher.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

THE CRITIC AS ARTIST WITH SOME REMARKS UPON THE IMPORTANCE OF DISCUSSING EVERYTHING A DIALOGUE : Part II.
— from Intentions by Oscar Wilde

Note 74 ( return ) [ As a specimen of these legends, we may be satisfied with 10,000 Christian soldiers crucified in one day, either by Trajan or Hadrian on Mount Ararat.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

We need not wonder, then, that in a period of decadence, when traditional faiths were shaken, when systems clashed, when men’s minds were disquieted, when the fabric of empire itself, once deemed eternal, began to show ominous rents and fissures, the serene figure of Isis with her spiritual calm, her gracious promise of immortality, should have appeared to many like a star in a stormy sky, and should have roused in their breasts a rapture of devotion not unlike that which was paid in the Middle Ages to the Virgin Mary.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

Away back in the days of bondage they thought to see in one divine event the end of all doubt and disappointment; few men ever worshipped Freedom with half such unquestioning faith as did the American Negro for two centuries.
— from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois

Mandioca-meal, the bread of the country, had become so scarce and dear and bad that the poorer classes of natives suffered famine, and all who could afford it were obliged to eat wheaten bread at fourpence to fivepence per pound, made from American flour, 1200 barrels of which were consumed monthly; this was now, therefore, a very serious item of daily expense to all but the most wealthy.
— from The Naturalist on the River Amazons by Henry Walter Bates

This incense was to be burned upon the altar every morning; upon that altar which was called the altar of incense, which was before the veil; to show that it is our duty every morning to make our prayer to God by Jesus Christ before the veil; that is, before the door of heaven, and there to seek, knock, and ask for what we need, according to the word (Luke 11:9-13).
— from Works of John Bunyan — Volume 03 by John Bunyan

Accordingly, while almost all generalizations relating to Man and Society, antecedent to the last fifty or sixty years, have erred in the gross way which we have attempted to characterize, namely, by implicitly assuming that nature and society will forever revolve in the same orbit, and exhibit essentially the same phenomena; which is also the vulgar error of the ostentatiously practical, the votaries of so-called common sense, in our day, especially in Great Britain; the more thinking minds of the present age, having applied a more minute analysis to the past records of our race, have for the most part adopted a contrary opinion, that the human species is in a state of necessary progression, and that from the terms of the series which are past we may infer positively those which are yet to come.
— from A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive by John Stuart Mill

The waters boxed in among the numerous islands of the Grecian archipelago were writhing in opposite directions, enraged and clashing against the ledges on the coast with a retrograding violence that converted them into a furious surge.
— from Mare Nostrum (Our Sea): A Novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez

These he read and re-read, and from that time onward he saw in all the incidents of his life nothing but the perpetual intervention of devils evoked by the witch Madame de Pompadour and her brother the magician, the Marquis de Marigny.
— from Legends of the Bastille by Frantz Funck-Brentano

In other states the war lasted at most but four years; but counting her western border warfare in the struggle for Kansas, the war was waged in western Missouri from 1855 to 1865, ten years: and for many years after the close of the Civil War, a guerrilla warfare was intermittently carried on by bands of outlaws harbored in western Missouri—especially in Jackson, Ray, Caldwell and Clay counties—that terrorized the community and shocked the world by the daring and atrocity of their crimes—including bank robberies in open day, express train wrecking and robberies, and murders.
— from History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Volume 3 by Smith, Joseph, Jr.

The price of these binders is One Dollar each.
— from The Mentor: Holland, v. 2, Num. 6, Serial No. 58 May 1, 1914 by Dwight L. (Dwight Lathrop) Elmendorf