It is part of the martyrdom which I endure for the cause of the Truth that there are seasons of mental weakness, when Cubes and Spheres flit away into the background of scarce-possible existences; when the Land of Three Dimensions seems almost as visionary as the Land of One or None; nay, when even this hard wall that bars me from my freedom, these very tablets on which I am writing, and all the substantial realities of Flatland itself, appear no better than the offspring of a diseased imagination, or the baseless fabric of a dream.
— from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Illustrated) by Edwin Abbott Abbott

The Causes Of Change In Religion From the propagation of Religion, it is not hard to understand the causes of the resolution of the same into its first seeds, or principles; which are only an opinion of a Deity, and Powers invisible, and supernaturall; that can never be so abolished out of humane nature, but that new Religions may againe be made to spring out of them, by the culture of such men, as for such purpose are in reputation.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

and, some days after, she had it again christened by a minister; the King, and Lord of Oxford, and Duchesse of Suffolk, being witnesses: and christened with a proviso, that it had not already been christened.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

While this gave rise to many legends of præternatural powers of vision gained by tasting or bathing in a dragon’s blood, as in the poem of Siegfried; or from waters it guarded, as ‘Eye Well,’ in which Guy’s dragon dipped its tail to recover from wounds; the Sanskrit sense of eye-poisoning was preserved in legends of occult and dangerous powers possessed by kings,—one of the latest being the potent evil eye popularly ascribed in Italy to the late Pius IX.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

Thus the details and technicalities of the Kula acquire their meaning in so far only as they express some central attitude of mind of the natives, and thus broaden our knowledge, widen our outlook and deepen our grasp of human nature.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

At a certain time a profligate Christian attempted to devirginate a Maid, but the Mother being present, resisted him, and endeavouring to free her from his intended Rape, whereat the Spaniard enrag'd, cut off her Hand with a short Sword, and stab'd the Virgin in several places, till she Expir'd, because she obstinately opposed and disappointed his inordinate Appetite.
— from A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies Or, a faithful NARRATIVE OF THE Horrid and Unexampled Massacres, Butcheries, and all manner of Cruelties, that Hell and Malice could invent, committed by the Popish Spanish Party on the inhabitants of West-India, TOGETHER With the Devastations of several Kingdoms in America by Fire and Sword, for the space of Forty and Two Years, from the time of its first Discovery by them. by Bartolomé de las Casas

In this mood Mr Verloc missed Stevie very much out of a difficult world.
— from The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad

And the same Law, that dictateth to men that have no Civil Government, what they ought to do, and what to avoyd in regard of one another, dictateth the same to Common-wealths, that is, to the Consciences of Soveraign Princes, and Soveraign Assemblies; there being no Court of Naturall Justice, but in the Conscience onely; where not Man, but God raigneth; whose Lawes, (such of them as oblige all Mankind,) in respect of God, as he is the Author of Nature, are Naturall; and in respect of the same God, as he is King of Kings, are Lawes.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

The same love of others, a desire to do something for them, a desire for their approval.—So I lived for others, and not almost, but quite, ruined my life.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

The Jewish Bible accepts the same translation as our own, and does not even affix the mark of doubt.
— from Bible Animals; Being a Description of Every Living Creature Mentioned in the Scripture, from the Ape to the Coral. by J. G. (John George) Wood

The captions were out of order and did not agree with the content of the illustration.
— from Discoveries and Inventions of the Nineteenth Century by Robert Routledge

Thus, 'in Indian file,' they traversed a belt of wood, till they came out on a dry and sun-burnt plain, where their steps left no impression.
— from The Pilgrims of New England A Tale of the Early American Settlers by Mrs. (Annie) Webb-Peploe

In a word, the old gods are growing old or already dead, and others are not yet born.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim

The speech was always an attack on, or a defence of, some one of his playfellows.
— from Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 (of 4) by Plutarch

That implement he had fashioned for himself with infinite pains out of a door-bolt some twenty inches long, which he had found discarded in a rubbish-heap in a corner of the attic where he had been allowed to take his brief daily exercise.
— from The Historical Nights' Entertainment: First Series by Rafael Sabatini

Then, as for utilitarianism, whether it be a different thing from eudæmonism, or only a different aspect of the same thing, {50} there is nothing more certain than that Socrates was a utilitarian.
— from Four Phases of Morals: Socrates, Aristotle, Christianity, Utilitarianism by John Stuart Blackie

[177] It is noteworthy that most of the great stones of these legends appear to have really been transported to the place where they are now found, being often of a different rock than that of the immediate locality.
— from British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes

The people of Prophet's Town had left their homes with Black Hawk's band more out of fear of the oncoming long knives than out of a desire to help Black Hawk fight for Saukenuk.
— from Shaman by Robert Shea

I will let you off at twenty-eight per cent.—twenty-seven—even twenty-five if you insist, for there is nothing illiberal about me when I am out on a diplomatic debauch.
— from Mark Twain's Speeches by Mark Twain