[“What is the reason that the oracles at Delphi are no longer uttered: not merely in this age of ours, but for a long time past, insomuch that nothing is more in contempt?” —Cicero, De Divin., ii. 57.]
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

It is easy to see that their fears were without foundation, that the weakness of the capital secured it against the magistrates who were in its midst; that a dictator might, in certain cases, defend the public liberty, but could never endanger it; and that the chains of Rome would be forged, not in Rome itself, but in her armies.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

What do these words matter to them, Equity, Truth, Conscience, which moreover in certain circles do not move men any more than stones?
— from The History of a Crime The Testimony of an Eye-Witness by Victor Hugo

What we do laugh at is something that this lack of proportion may in certain cases disclose, namely, a particular mechanical arrangement which it reveals to us, as through a glass, at the back of the series of effects and causes.
— from Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic by Henri Bergson

Carr saw one of the same men in Connelly (County Donegal), some six months or so after, and with great surprise said to him, “Will you tell me the wonders of the world?
— from The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. (Walter Yeeling) Evans-Wentz

BROOKHART: If Your Honor pleases, this particular question, I believe, will have a bearing on the implications involving the military; I can cut down on the other details.
— from Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremburg, 14 November 1945-1 October 1946, Volume 4 by Various

The flour was made into cakes called damper , cooked in a frying-pan; and this wasteful mode of preparing it greatly diminished its quantity.
— from The Mysteries of London, v. 2/4 by George W. M. (George William MacArthur) Reynolds

"Madam, I challenged Captain Danvers to fight."
— from A Dream of Empire Or, The House of Blennerhassett by William Henry Venable

If I am to be destroyed, it will not be by any accident of romantic emotion, of unconsidered impulse, or sudden blindness of passion; it will be because Page 352 [Pg 352] my intelligence coolly courted destruction, and accepted every chance, every hazard."
— from Athalie by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers

The rich man is commonly called Dives, the Latin name for “a man of wealth.”
— from The Gospel of Luke, An Exposition by Charles Rosenbury Erdman

This experience led me to believe that like Mr. Castaneda's mentor, I could consciously direct my actions within the context of a dream.
— from Take Me for a Ride: Coming of Age in a Destructive Cult by Mark E. Laxer