Under these circumstances any given association of men, let it be a village, a religious group, a trade union, a corporation, or a political party, not only takes into itself new members from time to time; it also permits old members to depart.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

It is in a year like this of 1909, when a long cold winter and a miserable spring, with frosty nights lasting well into June, was followed by a cold wet summer and a wet autumn, that we can see properly what a mind and body is his—how infinitely more perfect the correspondence between organism and environment in his case than in ours, who have made our own conditions, who have not only houses to live in, but a vast army of sanitary inspectors, physicians and bacteriologists to safeguard us from that wicked stepmother who is anxious to get rid of us before our time!
— from A Shepherd's Life: Impressions of the South Wiltshire Downs by W. H. (William Henry) Hudson

Man is a poor creature, his life is but a vapour, and the less that he is in the way of temptation the better is it for him in time and in eternity."
— from Blue-Stocking Hall, (Vol. 2 of 3) by William Pitt Scargill

The priest knows that our life is but a voyage, and that our perfection cannot be realized here below; and he contents himself with outlining on earth an education which must be completed in heaven.
— from System of Economical Contradictions; Or, The Philosophy of Misery by P.-J. (Pierre-Joseph) Proudhon

"One winter's evening I sat alone over my cheerless hearth, gazing vacantly on the glowing embers, when a coal fell from a mass of others which had formed themselves into a hollow body in the fire, leaving a tinge of deeper red over the spot, in the midst of which the letter, T, appeared indistinctly, fading and reappearing for some time, till, at last it became as visible as the mark I make with my stick on this sand.
— from A Yacht Voyage to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden 2nd edition by William A. Ross

He knows it has come down the ages, and that some in every age have been more or less influenced by a varied acceptance of it.
— from A Dish of Orts : Chiefly Papers on the Imagination, and on Shakespeare by George MacDonald

Not a little, indeed, but a very appreciable amount.
— from The Story of the Mind by James Mark Baldwin

‘Noo, Geordie,’ she resumed, ‘as life is but a vapour, a puff out o’ the stroop o’ the tea-kettle o’ Time—let us a’ consent to mak one another happy—and there being nae likelihood that ever Jamie Walkinshaw will colleague wi’ Beenie, your dochter, I would fain hope ye’ll gie her and Walky there baith your benison and an aliment to mak them happy.’
— from The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy by John Galt

This doom has brought around me, as it did around others before me, certain beings, powers, influences, and at length I became a voluntary adept in the Rosicrucian mysteries and brotherhood.
— from The Wonderful Story of Ravalette by Paschal Beverly Randolph