Prudence, on the one hand, warned me that I should remain on guard, but exhausted Nature, on the other, declared that I should do nothing of the kind.
— from The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

I speak rather of the past, however, than the present.
— from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

It seemed rather odd to me to be in the theatre with nobody to watch for.
— from The Letters of Jane Austen Selected from the compilation of her great nephew, Edward, Lord Bradbourne by Jane Austen

This POETICAL fiction of the GOLDEN AGE, is in some respects, of a piece with the PHILOSOPHICAL fiction of the STATE OF NATURE; only that the former is represented as the most charming and most peaceable condition, which can possibly be imagined; whereas the latter is painted out as a state of mutual war and violence, attended with the most extreme necessity.
— from An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume

And we now claim the right unconditionally to reject the interference in scientific research of any such practical considerations, even before we have investigated whether the apprehension which these considerations are meant to instil are justified or not.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud

No, I should reply; opinions, at first, of every description, were all, probably, considered, and therefore were founded on some reason; yet not unfrequently, of course, it was rather a local expedient than a fundamental principle, that would be reasonable at all times.
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects by Mary Wollstonecraft

Furthermore, it suggests reasons of personal convenience, rather than any definite repudiation, any moral impossibility.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

I left him and went to walk in the Park, where great endeavouring to get into the inward Park,—[This is still railed off from St. James’s Park, and called the Enclosure.]—but could not get in; one man was basted by the keeper, for carrying some people over on his back through the water.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Those of their narrations which I heard with regard to the gods I am not earnest to relate in full, but I shall name them only because I consider that all men are equally ignorant of these matters: and whatever things of them I may record I shall record only because I am compelled by the course of the story.
— from An Account of Egypt by Herodotus

Olga Ivánovna, gentlemen, was very far from being uncomely.—But her beauty consisted rather in remarkable softness and freshness of person, in a tranquil charm of movement, than in strict regularity of features.
— from The Diary of a Superfluous Man, and Other Stories by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

I feigned a sorrow a hundred times greater than I felt in reality, and sinking into silence, rode on as if all things had ended on earth for me.
— from Lillian Morris, and Other Stories by Henryk Sienkiewicz

If she rode or drove, somebody got ready the horse for her; it was the same with the car.
— from Prescott of Saskatchewan by Harold Bindloss

"Come, now, be a good girl, and do me this one favor; it is the last I shall require of you until I give you my name."
— from Ellen Walton Or, The Villain and His Victims by Alvin Addison

Custom has not placed its sordid restraint on her feelings.
— from Secresy; or, Ruin on the Rock by E. (Eliza) Fenwick

One of our best hounds while hunting alone, brought a goral to bay and was found dead next day by the hunters with its side ripped open.
— from Camps and Trails in China A Narrative of Exploration, Adventure, and Sport in Little-Known China by Roy Chapman Andrews

With regard to composition it is quite monstrous; in some respects offending by its bad taste, and in others charming by its boldness.
— from History of Spanish and Portuguese Literature (Vol 1 of 2) by Friedrich Bouterwek

I saw Rudd once before I left.
— from Overlooked by Maurice Baring