It is absolutely impossible, however, to know the existence of this Being from mere concepts, because every existential proposition, that is, every proposition that affirms the existence of a being of which I frame a concept, is a synthetic proposition, that is, one by which I go beyond that conception and affirm of it more than was thought in the conception itself; namely, that this concept in the understanding has an object corresponding to it outside the understanding, and this it is obviously impossible to elicit by any reasoning.
— from The Critique of Practical Reason by Immanuel Kant

Several times I thought I heard faint sounds behind me as of somebody moving cautiously, but eventually even these ceased, and I was left to the contemplation of my position without interruption.
— from A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

It was only by distributing among the particular members of parliament a great part either of the offices, or of the disposal of the offices arising from this civil and military establishment, that such a system of management could be established, even with regard to the parliament of England.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

DOCTORAL AND MAGISTRAL CANONRIES At length Philip III listened to the complaints of the chapters and, in a decree of December 24, 1599, addressed to the Suprema, he called attention to the injury inflicted on the cathedral services by withdrawing canons from their duties, and he ordered that in future much caution be exercised, especially as regarded the deans, the doctoral and magistral canons and the penitentiaries.
— from A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 2 by Henry Charles Lea

I felt that Lady Broadhem was watching me curiously, but every effort I made to grasp the details before me failed hopelessly.
— from Piccadilly: A Fragment of Contemporary Biography by Laurence Oliphant

To this place my first visit was one of mere chance, but each evening after saw me at the same calm hour taking my walk amongst the tombs.
— from Impressions of America During the Years 1833, 1834 and 1835. Volume 2 (of 2) by Tyrone Power

Then follows the sublimest passage of the whole poem—one of great celebrity among the Greeks, who quoted it, and worked it up in poems, parables, and essays: "Behold, thou mayest choose badness easily, even in heaps; for the path is plain, and she dwells very near [Pg 181] .
— from Studies of the Greek Poets (Vol 1 of 2) by John Addington Symonds

Then the wind died down, the mist came back enfolding everything, and the pursuers encamped where they were.
— from A Boy's Ride by Gulielma Zollinger

These towers are connected on the level of the first floor by a stone gallery, supported by what we must call brackets, each ending in a grotesque human head.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

That numerous chemical rearrangements of the atom-complexes take place outside the protoplasmic molecules—both of those left unemployed in assimilation and of those rejected during the destructive processes—will be readily understood: many of the bye-products found in plants, such as vegetable acids, alkaloids, colouring matters, crystalline bodies, etc., etc., are due to these, so to speak, fortuitous combinations and re-combinations.
— from Disease in Plants by H. Marshall (Harry Marshall) Ward

There was no one to turn to, no man to whom this dangerous mission could be entrusted, except one, her young friend, F. [255] She thought of him and wondered whether she could confide to him a scheme which had been slowly forming in her mind.
— from The Petticoat Commando: Boer Women in Secret Service by Johanna Brandt

He was amazed to find the cashier not merely cheerful, but even exuberantly cheerful.
— from Psmith in the City by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse