In Saxony the importance of the principle of selection in regard to merino sheep is so fully recognised, that men follow it as a trade: the sheep are placed on a table and are studied, like a picture by a connoisseur; this is done three times at intervals of months, and the sheep are each time marked and classed, so that the very best may ultimately be selected for breeding.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

No more shalt thou be loved and pitied by living hearts, till a new generation has been born, and thy own heart lies cold, cured of all its sorrows.—The Epigrams henceforth become, not sharp and bitter; but cruel, atrocious, unmentionable.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

I—yea, all men—are larger and purer by the infinite breadth of that one little life.
— from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois

Thou goest the way to thy greatness: it must now be thy best courage that there is no longer any path behind thee!
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

We must not, however, forget the reservation necessary in all things which have for their object improvement or Progress, namely, that in seeking the good which is needed, no damage, or as little as possible, be done to that already possessed.
— from Considerations on Representative Government by John Stuart Mill

The famish’d lion thus, with hunger bold, O’erleaps the fences of the nightly fold, And tears the peaceful flocks: with silent awe Trembling they lie, and pant beneath his paw.
— from The Aeneid by Virgil

The Circumstances in which I saw her, were, it seems, the Disguises only of a broken Heart, and a kind of Pageantry to cover Distress; for in two Months after, she was carried to her Grave with the same Pomp and Magnificence: being sent thither partly by the Loss of one Lover, and partly by the Possession of another.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

Over everything lay a peculiar blue radiance, as if it were surrounded by the air from above, through which the blue sky shone, instead of the dark depths of the sea.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

'Why, Sir, in the formulary and statutory part of law, a plodding block-head may excel; but in the ingenious and rational part of it a plodding block-head can never excel.
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson Abridged and edited, with an introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood by James Boswell

99 I have given it a fair trial, and have put off writing to you on the subject as long as possible; but as there is no chance of my changing my mind, further delay would be useless.
— from The New Century Standard Letter-Writer Business, Family and Social Correspondence, Love-Letters, Etiquette, Synonyms, Legal Forms, Etc. by Alfred B. Chambers

The selected biosatellite experiments include studies at the cellular, tissue, and organism levels, including embryological development and growth experiments at the tissue level and physiological, behavioral, reproductive, and genetic studies at the organism level.
— from Significant Achievements in Space Bioscience 1958-1964 by United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration

New Street Square, in the Parish of St. Bride, in the City of London; and published by George Bell , of No. 186.
— from Notes and Queries, Number 240, June 3, 1854 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by Various

He tells us most expressly, that he came not to destroy the law and prophets but to fulfil them —or to confirm them.
— from Twenty-four Discourses On Some of the Important and Interesting Truths, Duties, and Institutions, of the Gospel, and the General Excellency of the Christian Religion; Calculated for the People of God of Every Communion, Particularly for the Benefit of Pious Families, and the Instruction of All in the Things Which Concern Their Salvation by Nathan Perkins

This may sound like some pleasant if not spicy and highly unconventional pastime, but is in fact and literally a procrustean bed of torture.
— from The Unpopular Review, Number 19 July-December 1918 by Various

Invested now with all the mysterious dignity belonging to the nymph of the veil and lute, and proved, besides (at least in Quentin's estimation), to be the high born heiress of a rich earldom, her beauty made ten times the impression upon him which it had done when he beheld in her one whom he deemed the daughter of a paltry innkeeper, in attendance upon a rich and humorous old burgher.
— from Quentin Durward by Walter Scott

So spake he, and the Argives shouted aloud, like to a wave on a steep shore, when the south wind cometh and stirreth it; even on a jutting rock, that is never left at peace by the waves of all winds that rise from this side and from that.
— from The Iliad by Homer