Even such charming exotics as Plato's myths have not been able to flourish without changing their nature and passing into ordinary dramatic mythology—into a magic system in which all the forces, once terms in moral experience, became personal angels and demons.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

[Clark, January 25, 1805] 25th of January 1805 Friday we are informed of the arrival of a Band of Asniboins at the Villages with the Grand Cheif of those Tribes call the (Fee de petite veau) to trade, one of our interpeter & one man Set out to the Big Belley Camp opposit the Island men employ'd in Cutting the Boat out of the ice, and Collecting Coal wood.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

I have observed this in my experience of slavery,—that whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only increased my desire to be free, and set me to thinking of plans to gain my freedom.
— from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass

When I came a little out of that part of the island I stood still awhile, as amazed, and then, recovering myself, I looked up with the utmost affection of my soul, and, with a flood of tears in my eyes, gave God thanks, that had cast my first lot in a part of the world where I was distinguished from such dreadful creatures as these; and that, though I had esteemed my present condition very miserable, had yet given me so many comforts in it that I had still more to give thanks for than to complain of: and this, above all, that I had, even in this miserable condition, been comforted with the knowledge of Himself, and the hope of His blessing: which was a felicity more than sufficiently equivalent to all the misery which I had suffered, or could suffer.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

He said it was the genteelest profession in the world, and must on no account be confounded with the profession of a solicitor: being quite another sort of thing, infinitely more exclusive, less mechanical, and more profitable.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

I let him go his way in order that I might enjoy the privilege of a solitary person and reach the Town Hall by a short cut, and it was not until thirteen years later that I again set eyes upon him.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

States of consciousness, any sort of faith, a holding of certain things for true, as every psychologist knows, are indeed of absolutely no consequence, and are only of fifth-rate importance compared with the value of the instincts: more exactly, the whole concept of intellectual causality is false.
— from The Twilight of the Idols; or, How to Philosophize with the Hammer. The Antichrist Complete Works, Volume Sixteen by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

1.21, et al.; used of the thing by which an oath is made, Mat. 5.34, et al.; of the instrument, means, efficient cause, Ro. 12.21.
— from A Greek-English Lexicon to the New Testament by William Greenfield

A line of tents is much easier to distinguish than a line of huts or a bivouac; and an encampment on a line of front, fully and regularly drawn out, also easier than one of Divisions formed in columns, the mode often used at present.
— from On War — Volume 1 by Carl von Clausewitz

Few occupations are more wearisome than counting a series of repetitions of the same fact; the number of paces we walk affords a tolerably good measure of distance passed over, but the value of this is much enhanced by possessing an instrument, the pedometer, which will count for us the number of steps we have made.
— from On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures by Charles Babbage

Seeing your hand upon the cover of a letter which he brought, I immediately blessed him, presented him with a glass of whiskey, inquired after his family (they are all well), and opened the despatch with a moist and oystery twinkle in my eye.
— from Yesterdays with Authors by James Thomas Fields

Father's I opened first, and read his letter, stopping often with tears of thankfulness in my eyes to thank God for enabling him not to be over-anxious about me, and for the blessing of knowing that he was as well as usual, and also because his work, so distasteful to him, was drawing to a close.
— from Life of John Coleridge Patteson : Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian Islands by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge

I then traveled till dark, and that night, for the only time in my experience, I used in camping a trick of the old-time trappers in the Indian days.
— from Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt

When he had lost a great deal of time in making enquiries about the various modes of conveyance, the idea occurred to him to travel post.
— from Sentimental Education; Or, The History of a Young Man. Volume 2 by Gustave Flaubert

I had carefully caused it to be sent, in order that, however small a proof of talent, it might, even in those few lines introduced into it emblem-wise, be no obscure proof of my love towards you.
— from An Introduction to the Prose and Poetical Works of John Milton Comprising All the Autobiographic Passages in His Works, the More Explicit Presentations of His Ideas of True Liberty. by John Milton

Your measure of zeal for such service will of course measure your activities in its service, and determine how much of time, influence, means, etc., you will devote to its spread.
— from Studies in the Scriptures, Volume 7: The Finished Mystery by C. T. (Charles Taze) Russell

In the restoration by Sir Arthur Blomfield, the windows of both transepts were rebuilt, the pointed roofs raised to their old level, and the walls underpinned and refaced (externally) with Box Ground and Bath stone, in place of the inferior material employed in 1830, care being taken to place the stone in the natural direction of the strata.
— from Bell's Cathedrals: Southwark Cathedral Formerly the Collegiate Church of St. Saviour, Otherwise St. Mary Overie. A Short History and Description of the Fabric, with Some Account of the College and the See by George Worley

I shut my chamber door, as it were, upon one world, only that I may enjoy another.
— from Acadia or, A Month with the Blue Noses by Frederic S. (Frederic Swartwout) Cozzens

If the electrode is composed of bodies of different character, and if one of these is more easily disintegrated than the other, most of the electricity supplied is carried off from that body, which is then brought to a higher temperature than the others, and this the more, as upon an increase of the temperature the body is still more easily disintegrated.
— from The inventions, researches and writings of Nikola Tesla With special reference to his work in polyphase currents and high potential lighting by Thomas Commerford Martin