Their popular election endeared them to the Romans: the public and private indigence was relieved by their ample revenue; and the weakness or neglect of the emperors compelled them to consult, both in peace and war, the temporal safety of the city.
— 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

In none of the English colonies is there any hereditary nobility.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

The noiseless little noises of the earth Come with softest rustle; The shy, sweet feet of life; The silky mutter of moth-wings Against my restraining palm; The strident beat of insect-wings, The silvery trickle of water; Little breezes busy in the summer grass; The music of crisp, whisking, scurrying leaves, The swirling, wind-swept, frost-tinted leaves; The crystal splash of summer rain, Saturate with the odours of the sod.
— from The World I Live In by Helen Keller

So far then, not only the empirical character of every man, but also that of every species of animal and plant, and even of every original force of unorganised nature, is to be regarded as the manifestation of an intelligible character, that is, of a timeless, indivisible act of will.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer

Here is no need of the Eumenides, children of Night everlasting; for here is very Night herself.
— from Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth by A. C. (Andrew Cecil) Bradley

What a title of noblesse of the eleventh century, if any one could now prove his inheritance!
— 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

From the nature of the organic remains, which do not appear to have inhabited profound depths, in the several formations of Europe and of the United States; and from the amount of sediment, miles in thickness, of which the formations are composed, we may infer that from first to last large islands or tracts of land, whence the sediment was derived, occurred in the neighbourhood of the existing continents of Europe and North America.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

It seems to prove not merely that man cannot be the ultimate purpose of nature, and that on the same grounds the aggregate of the organised things of nature on the earth cannot be a system of purposes; but also that the natural products formerly held to be natural purposes have no other origin than the mechanism of nature.
— from Kant's Critique of Judgement by Immanuel Kant

The same thing may be said of the state , of the whole bourgeoise social order, of labour, of war—he has no ground for denying “the world,” for he knows nothing of the ecclesiastical concept of “the world”....
— from The Antichrist by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

They were certainly no crueler than the Northmen of the eighth century.
— from Prehistoric Man Researches into the Origin of Civilization in the Old and the New World by Wilson, Daniel, Sir

The differences between us partly, though not entirely, depend upon the fundamentally different views we hold about the constitution of the ovary and the nature of the epithelium covering it ( vide pp.
— from The Works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 1 (of 4) Separate Memoirs by Francis M. (Francis Maitland) Balfour

“Do none of them ever come here to see you?”
— from The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 19 by Robert Louis Stevenson

[Sidenote: No newes of the English captives.]
— from The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation — Volume 12 America, Part I by Richard Hakluyt

A number of them even consented to be baptized; but I am very much afraid that the conversion was at best a transient one.
— from The Great White Tribe in Filipinia by Paul T. (Paul Thomas) Gilbert

The next day, a large number of torpedoes, each containing seventy-five pounds of powder, were fished up from the bottom of the river.
— from The Secret Service, the Field, the Dungeon, and the Escape by Albert D. (Albert Deane) Richardson

You, sir, I think, once expressed to me your belief that the nations of the East could only regenerate themselves by a spontaneous resumption of their lost national Will , and behold in Egypt that Will has arisen and is now struggling to find words which may persuade Europe of its existence."
— from Secret History of the English Occupation of Egypt Being a Personal Narrative of Events by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt

As he spoke, there was a loud "hurrah!" from the ground adjacent to the Abbey door; a true, hearty, English shout, such as no other nation on the earth can give; and the royal procession was seen returning.
— from Agincourt: A Romance The Works of G. P. R. James, Volume XX by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

There was none of the expressed curiosity of the New York worker as to my past, present, and future.
— from Working With the Working Woman by Cornelia Stratton Parker

None of the extant copies of either issue possess a title-page, or contain any mention of the writer's name.
— from Sir Walter Ralegh: A Biography by W. (William) Stebbing