The latter are neither unavoidable to mankind, nor necessary, or so much as useful in the conduct of life; but on the contrary are observed only to take place in weak minds, and being opposite to the other principles of custom and reasoning, may easily be subverted by a due contrast and opposition.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

I never yet saw so many accomplishments united in one person, and I doubt whether Madrid can produce his equal.' 'Why then were you so silent in praise of this Phoenix of Madrid? Why was it concealed from me that his society had afforded you pleasure?' 'In truth, I know not: You ask me a question which I cannot resolve myself.
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis

Yes, I replied; but that surely is what ought not to be, as the argument has just proved to us; and by that proof we must abide until it is disproved by a better.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

And since there is among them also an unlearned rabble, they are stirred up as by the authority of the learned to hate us more bitterly, thinking in their inexperience that things which have happened unwontedly in their days were not wont to happen in other times gone by; and whereas this opinion of theirs is confirmed even by those who know that it is false, and yet dissemble their knowledge in order that they may seem to have just cause for murmuring against us, it was necessary, from books in which their authors recorded and published the history of bygone times that it might be known, to demonstrate that it is far otherwise than they think; and at the same time to teach that the false gods, whom they openly worshipped, or still worship in secret, are most unclean spirits, and most malignant and deceitful demons, even to such a pitch that they take delight in crimes which, whether real or [Pg 136] only fictitious, are yet their own, which it has been their will to have celebrated in honour of them at their own festivals; so that human infirmity cannot be called back from the perpetration of damnable deeds, so long as authority is furnished for imitating them that seems even divine.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

“Half an hour more or less can make no difference to you, and the gentleman was about to give us an account of this very interesting affair, which might aid us in clearing it up.”
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

The sole end of logic is to explain the principles and operations of our reasoning faculty, and the nature of our ideas: morals and criticism regard our tastes and sentiments: and politics consider men as united in society, and dependent on each other.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

Only now and then did a meager, and usually incorrect, account come to the knowledge of the world.
— from Vitus Bering: the Discoverer of Bering Strait by Peter Lauridsen

I am first affrighted and confounded with that forelorn solitude, in which I am placed in my philosophy, and fancy myself some strange uncouth monster, who not being able to mingle and unite in society, has been expelled all human commerce, and left utterly abandoned and disconsolate.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

Indeed there is a greater power which directs and rules us, and brings mortal affairs under its own laws.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

They were wholly justified in so doing; and to-day any sane man would of course pronounce the combined safety and rapidity of ordinary railroad movement an utter impossibility, did he not see it going on before his eyes.
— from Notes on Railroad Accidents by Charles Francis Adams

It keeps me warm and keeps me alive until I can find the first green plants.
— from The Burgess Animal Book for Children by Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo) Burgess

"What old lady, mamma, away up in Hanover?" "Your Aunt Desire, Daisy, whom you were named for.
— from Real Folks by A. D. T. (Adeline Dutton Train) Whitney

But my body is no longer pure, if on my account, and because of my marriage, there perish a virgin who has gone through sad and unbearable troubles, and has been marvelously and undeservedly ill treated.
— from The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I. by Euripides

How to make and use it.
— from A Practical Handbook on the Distillation of Alcohol from Farm Products by F. B. (Frederic B.) Wright

I remembered being photographed in civilian clothes when at Gumuch Souyou Hospital; and before leaving Psamatia I gave myself a useful identity by signing one of the copies with a German name.
— from Eastern Nights - and Flights: A Record of Oriental Adventure. by Alan Bott

The second treachery of Moritz of Saxony had overthrown the hopes of the Imperialists; the treaty of Passau had raised anew the Protestant expectations of religious liberty; and in 1552 the Catholic and Protestant leaders of the Moravian Assembly united in such an earnest appeal for mercy to Ferdinand, that he consented to consider the question of the release of his Protestant prisoners.
— from Bohemia, from the earliest times to the fall of national independence in 1620 With a short summary of later events by C. Edmund (Charles Edmund) Maurice

It glittered and grinned maliciously at us in the sunshine; it winked mysteriously through the stifling fog; it stretched itself like a prostrate giant, with huge, portentous shoulders and shadowy limbs, right across our course; or danced gleefully in broken groups in the little schooner's wake.
— from Letters from High Latitudes Being Some Account of a Voyage in 1856 of the Schooner Yacht "Foam" to Iceland, Jan Meyen, and Spitzbergen by Dufferin and Ava, Frederick Temple Blackwood, Marquis of

Similarly, it may claim Mr. T.S. Eliot—a poet of uncommon merit and unmistakably in the great line—whose agonizing labours seem to have been eased somewhat by the comfortable ministrations of a black and grinning muse.
— from Since Cézanne by Clive Bell