As to the doctrine of chances in the latter, it does not contain probable, but perfectly certain, judgments concerning the degree of the probability of certain cases, under given uniform conditions, which, in the sum of all possible cases, infallibly happen according to the rule, though it is not sufficiently determined in respect to every single chance.
— from Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics by Immanuel Kant

He never says, "Dinner is ready."
— from Etiquette by Emily Post

This question, which at first sight might not seem difficult, is really one of the most difficult that can be asked.
— from The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell

And if I now sit down in restful leisure, No fount of newer strength is in my brain: I am no hair's-breadth more in height, Nor nearer, to the Infinite, MEPHISTOPHELES Good Sir, you see the facts precisely As they are seen by each and all.
— from Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

But Venus, stirred in spirit by no vain mother's alarms, and moved by the threats and stern uprisal of the Laurentines, addresses herself to Vulcan, and in her golden bridal chamber begins thus, breathing divine passion in her speech: 'While Argolic kings wasted in war the doomed towers of Troy, the fortress fated to fall in hostile fires, no succour did I require for her wretched people, no weapons of thine art and aid: nor would I task, dear my lord, thee or thy toils for naught, though I owed many and many a debt to the children of Priam, and had often wept the sore labour of Aeneas.
— from The Aeneid of Virgil by Virgil

The glaciers were tumbling down the mountain sides like cataracts, and seemed actually to descend upon the river-bed; there could be no serious difficulty in reaching them by following up the river, which was wide and open; but it seemed rather an objectless thing to do, for the main range looked hopeless, and my curiosity about the nature of the country above the gorge was now quite satisfied; there was no money in it whatever, unless there should be minerals, of which I saw no more signs than lower down.
— from Erewhon; Or, Over the Range by Samuel Butler

The door was now again opened, and the old woman appeared with a tray containing sundry viands from neighbouring shops dealing in ready-cooked victuals.
— from Ada, the Betrayed; Or, The Murder at the Old Smithy. A Romance of Passion by James Malcolm Rymer

The fact was that she did not deal in names, she dealt in realities.
— from Buried Alive: A Tale of These Days by Arnold Bennett

Congratulating you on the unexampled success of the New York Fair for the relief of our brave and disabled soldiers, to which you yourself have contributed in no small degree, I remain, Yours very respectfully, James Buchanan .
— from Life of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States. v. 2 (of 2) by George Ticknor Curtis

Sediments underlying northwestern South Dakota include rocks assignable to the Pierre (shale), Fox Hills (sand), and Hell Creek formations of Cretaceous age and the Ludlow and Tongue River formations of the Paleocene.
— from Mammals of Northwestern South Dakota by J. Knox Jones

The few minutes that intervened between the order to advance, and the moment when the boats got within a quarter of a mile of the rock, were passed in a profound quiet, neither side making any noise, though Raoul had no small difficulty in restraining the constitutional impatience of his own men to begin.
— from The Wing-and-Wing; Or, Le Feu-Follet by James Fenimore Cooper