I recently asked myself the question: In how many different ways may a chessboard be divided into two parts of the same size and shape by cuts along the lines dividing the squares?
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney

[151] 147 Nor is it out of place in making a choice between duties involving a doubt, to consult men of learning or practical wisdom and to ascertain what their views are on any particular question of duty.
— from De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero

His eyes were red from weeping, his voice hoarse; he drew such a vivid picture of his misery, that, dreading some mad action counselled by despair, I could not withhold from him the consolation which I knew it was in my power to give.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

For the object is in our own mind and cannot be discovered in experience; and we have only to take care that our thoughts are consistent with each other, and to avoid falling into the amphiboly of regarding our idea as a representation of an object empirically given, and therefore to be cognized according to the laws of experience.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

To examine orally in a thorough way two students in each class-hour is about as much as can be done if there is to be any systematic exposition by lecture at all; and thus the conference between teacher and individual student can occur only twice a year at most.
— from Lord Kelvin: An account of his scientific life and work by Andrew Gray

I held no grudge against Mascarenhas for calling me a "chap", but deep inside me I carried the wound.
— from Behind the News: Voices from Goa's Press by Various

The “drink” is composed of ginger, water, molasses, and “Christmas bush,” drank in a fermented state.
— from Antigua and the Antiguans, Volume 2 (of 2) A full account of the colony and its inhabitants from the time of the Caribs to the present day by Mrs. Lanaghan

Membrane and cartilage bones developed in practically the same way, from the same skeleton-forming layer, and no morphological significance attached to their distinction (pp. 227, 457).
— from Form and Function: A Contribution to the History of Animal Morphology by E. S. (Edward Stuart) Russell

At the head stalked James Moore, and close behind David in his meagre coat.
— from Bob, Son of Battle by Alfred Ollivant

As the shuffling and distribution of these cards, and the plan of also drawing from a pile in the middle of the table, creates the greatest uncertainty as to the whereabouts of a certain card, much amusement can be derived in the effort to make a book.
— from Home Amusements by M. E. W. (Mary Elizabeth Wilson) Sherwood

Master Holyday, looking on from the fireplace, was amazed to see how much art could be displayed in what had ever seemed to him quite a simple matter.
— from Captain Ravenshaw; Or, The Maid of Cheapside. A Romance of Elizabethan London by Robert Neilson Stephens

He says:—"To form a correct opinion of what may and can be done in the manufacture of wine, we must be thoroughly convinced that Nature, in her operations, has other objects in view than merely to serve man as his careful cook and butler.
— from The Cultivation of The Native Grape, and Manufacture of American Wines by George Husmann