There is one continuous behavior, proceeding from a more uncertain, divided, hesitating state to a more overt, determinate, or complete state.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey

Not to be acted, emulated here, by us again, that role till now foremost in history—not to become a conqueror nation, or to achieve the glory of mere military, or diplomatic, or commercial superiority—but to become the grand producing land of nobler men and women—of copious races, cheerful, healthy, tolerant, free—to become the most friendly nation, (the United States indeed)—the modern composite nation, form'd from all, with room for all, welcoming all immigrants—accepting the work of our own interior development, as the work fitly filling ages and ages to come;—the leading nation of peace, but neither ignorant nor incapable of being the leading nation of war;—not the man's nation only, but the woman's nation—a land of splendid mothers, daughters, sisters, wives.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

You are by no means to be rude in your Office, but to do every thing as quiet and easy as possible; and to demean your selves so towards those employ’d by Capt. Courtney, that we may have no manner of Disturbance or Complaint: still observing that you be not overaw’d, nor deceiv’d of what is your Due, in the behalf of the Officers and Men.
— from A Cruising Voyage Around the World by Woodes Rogers

Considering the position Lionel must one day occupy, Canon Spratte suggested that he should enter the diplomatic service or the Guards, but the boy had inherited his mother’s lack of ambition rather than his father’s spirit.
— from The Bishop's Apron: A study in the origins of a great family by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham

And more often find the Proportions therein contain'd, so short in the Information of their Ignorance; or so unintelligible, to their Apprehensions; or so plainly contradictory of the most obvious Dictates of common Sense; that Religion (for the which they never think of looking beyond these Systems) appears to them indeed a thing not Built upon, or defensible by Reason:
— from Occasional Thoughts in Reference to a Vertuous or Christian life by Masham, Damaris, Lady

Many other divisions of cause, subordinate to the Aristotelian division, will be explained in connexion with the members of this latter.
— from Ontology, or the Theory of Being by P. (Peter) Coffey

With such groves the whole surface of the Chaco country is enamelled; the intervals between being occupied by plains of rich waving grass, now and then tracts of morass covered with tall and elegant reeds, a few arid spots bristling with singular forms of algarobia and cactus , and, in some places, isolated rocky mounds, of dome or conical shape, rising above the general level of the plains, as if intended to be used as watch-towers for their guardianship and safety.
— from Odd People: Being a Popular Description of Singular Races of Man by Mayne Reid

"As to that mam," said he, a thought more ponderously than usual, "as to that, I shall never look for a wife until the Major does, it has become a matter o'——" "Duty, of course, Sergeant!" "Of dooty, mam—pre-cisely!"
— from Our Admirable Betty: A Romance by Jeffery Farnol