I do not disapprove the use we make of things the earth produces, nor doubt, in the least, of the power and fertility of Nature, and of its application to our necessities: I very well see that pikes and swallows live by her laws; but I mistrust the inventions of our mind, our knowledge and art, to countenance which, we have abandoned Nature and her rules, and wherein we keep no bounds nor moderation.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Before leaving Buckingham Palace to go to St. Paul's, the Queen sent a message of thanks to every part of her vast empire.
— from The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 35, July 8, 1897 A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls by Various

Brown promising to make over to them every part of his stock, and to be guided in future by their advice, declaring that he would turn over a new leaf, and follow Mr. Stock's example, as well as his direction in every thing.
— from The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, and Other Tales by Hannah More

We need not here detail the artifices and assumptions by which the members of the Third Estate put forward pretensions which were designed to make them masters of the whole Assembly; nor is it necessary to unfold at length the combination of audacity and craft, aided by the culpable weakness of Necker, by which they ultimately carried the point they contended for, providing that the three orders should deliberate and vote together as one united body in one chamber.
— from The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France by Charles Duke Yonge

And as it happened, the meditations of the two elder people had turned in almost the same direction, though they were guided by a different knowledge of circumstances.
— from A Canadian Heroine, Volume 2 A Novel by Coghill, Harry, Mrs.

Always well-groomed, the care of the Kennel inmates now became the sole task of Matt, who examined them thoroughly twice a day; cutting and filing their nails when necessary, that they might not split, and currying and brushing their hair till the Big Man observed that these elaborate preparations suggested a beauty contest rather than a dog race.
— from Baldy of Nome by Esther Birdsall Darling

All bodies of men of the same calling herded together for protracted periods of time are inclined to the habit, but most of them take elaborate precautions to eradicate it.
— from A Knight on Wheels by Ian Hay

Such an agitation as that in favour of women's suffrage is inconceivable and disgusting beyond words to the mind of { 168} a Chinese thinker; that women, whose dignity is such that they should never be tried in a public court; that educated ladies, whose names, in China, must scarcely be mentioned owing to their exalted position, should wrestle in a public crowd and be arrested, is one of those mysteries in Western government that the dignified Eastern mind can never hope to understand.
— from Changing China by Cecil, Florence Mary (Bootle-Wilbraham), Lady

Grace heard them protesting that they were not of the singers, so she hurried out and declared that she would forego the anticipated pleasure rather than break up their own party; so within a moment or two the entire Post, with One-Arm Ojam, were in the parlor, where some stared about in [258] amazement, while others looked as distressed as cats in a strange kitchen.
— from Caleb Wright: A Story of the West by John Habberton

There are many other live issues of great interest and importance in transportation suggested by this subject, such as "re-billing" or "milling in transit," and "differentials," but space forbids more than an explanation of the meaning of these two especially prominent ones.
— from The American Railway: Its Construction, Development, Management, and Appliances by Thomas Curtis Clarke

It can be of no possible benefit to me, or any one else, that I should know more of those things, either past, present, or to come.
— from George Eliot's Life, as Related in Her Letters and Journals. Vol. 2 (of 3) by George Eliot