63 In earthly affairs, it is not easy to conceive how an assembly equal of legislators can bind their successors invested with powers equal to their own.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

The American Union has no enemies to contend with; it stands in the wilds like an island in the ocean.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville

This maxim, strongly imprinted on my mind, and reduced, though rather too late, to practice, has given my conduct an appearance of folly and whimsicality, not only in public, but still more among my acquaintances: it has been said, I affected originality, and sought to act different from other people; the truth is, I neither endeavor to conform or be singular, I desire only to act virtuously and avoid situations, which, by setting my interest in opposition to that of another person’s, might inspire me with a secret, though involuntary wish to his disadvantage.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Bombardment ion engines rely on the bombardment of the propellant gas by electrons from a cathode, or negative electrode, to create ions.
— from Rockets, Missiles, and Spacecraft of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution by Lynne C. Murphy

We have no Eton to create the self-consciousness
— from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott (Francis Scott) Fitzgerald

And yet corruption does not explain the condition of modern journalism.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

But, in reality, if we have not all the virtues, I will boldly say, neither have we all the vices of a prudent character; and though it is not easy to conceive circumstances much more miserable than those of poor Jones at present, we shall return to him, and attend upon him with the same diligence as if he was wantoning in the brightest beams of fortune.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

In Talbot county, Eastern Shore, Maryland, near Easton, the county town of that county, there is a small district of country, thinly populated, and remarkable for nothing that I know of more than for the worn-out, sandy, desert-like appearance of its soil, the general dilapidation of its farms and fences, the indigent and spiritless character of its inhabitants, and the prevalence of ague and fever.
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass

On the 12th June 1784, Francesca replied: “I could not expect to convey to you, nor could you figure, the sorrow that tries me in seeing that you will not occupy yourself any more with me . . . .
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Because you have relations, friends, and”— A bitter, ironical smile appeared on the lips of Jacques de Boiscoran as he broke in,— “What do I owe to them, if they have not even the courage to wait for the sentence to be pronounced before they condemn me?
— from Within an Inch of His Life by Emile Gaboriau

Not even the cholera is so contagious in this country as a style of architecture which we happen to catch; the country is just now broken out all over with the Mansard-roof epidemic.
— from Backlog Studies by Charles Dudley Warner

In the same way, many who are rather shocked at Camille , find no trouble in listening to La Traviata , and weep for the woes of Favorita when that opera thrown into the form of an English novel excites their censure or disgust.
— from Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 12, No. 32, November, 1873 by Various

They carry messages to the various generals, and, if necessary, explain the commander's wishes to them more fully than could be done in writing.
— from The Childrens' Story of the War, Volume 1 (of 10) From the Beginning of the War to the Landing of the British Army in France by Edward Parrott

Not even the Captain himself could have spoken more bluntly than did John, and Priscilla looked at him in amazement.
— from The Children's Longfellow Told in Prose by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

They considered not, that their interposition in the wars of the continent, though agreeable to religious zeal, could not, at that time, be justified by any sound maxims of politics; that, however exorbitant the Austrian greatness, the danger was still too distant to give any just alarm to England; that mighty resistance would yet be made by so many potent and warlike princes and states in Germany, ere they would yield their neck to the yoke; that France, now engaged to contract a double alliance with the Austrian family, must necessarily be soon roused from her lethargy, and oppose the progress of so hated a rival; that, in the further advance of conquests, even the interests of the two branches of that ambitious family must interfere, and beget mutual jealousy and opposition; that a land war, carried on at such a distance, would waste the blood and treasure of the English nation, without any hopes of success; that a sea war, indeed, might be both safe and successful against Spain, but would not affect the enemy in such vital parts as to make them stop their career of success in Germany, and abandon all their acquisitions; and that the prospect of recovering the Palatinate being at present desperate, the affair was reduced to this simple question, whether peace and commerce with Spain, or the uncertain hopes of plunder and of conquest in the Indies, were preferable?
— from The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part D. From Elizabeth to James I. by David Hume

I'm so fur behind I never expect to catch up.
— from Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Arkansas Narratives, Part 6 by United States. Work Projects Administration

He never expects to come down again.
— from The Palm Tree Blessing by William Edward Shepard

Its philosophy of history, as far as it ever had one in particular, is hence essentially pragmatic; it judges everything from the standpoint of the immediate motive; it divides historical agents into good and bad and finds as a whole that the good are defrauded and the bad are victorious, whence it follows that, as far as the old materialism is concerned, there is nothing edifying that can be obtained from a study of history, and for us, that in the realm of history the old materialism is proved to be false, since it fixes active ideal impulses as final causes instead of seeking [Pg 107] that which lies behind them, that which is the impulse of these impulses.
— from Feuerbach: The roots of the socialist philosophy by Friedrich Engels