when we had arrived within half a mile of them I directed the party to halt and leaving my pack and rifle I took the flag which I unfurled and avanced singly towards them the women soon disappeared behind the hill, the man continued untill I arrived within a hundred yards of him and then likewise absconded.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

The only way to refute priests and religions is this: to show that their errors are no longer beneficent —that they are rather harmful; in short, that their own "proof of power" no longer holds good....
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book I and II by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

In the markets of Saana and Merab, in the harbors of Oman and Aden, the camels of the Koreishites were laden with a precious cargo of aromatics; a supply of corn and manufactures was purchased in the fairs of Bostra and Damascus; the lucrative exchange diffused plenty and riches in the streets of Mecca; and the noblest of her sons united the love of arms with the profession of merchandise.
— 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

He who can read Sir Charles Lyell's grand work on the Principles of Geology, which the future historian will recognise as having produced a revolution in natural science, and yet does not admit how vast have been the past periods of time, may at once close this volume.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

“Certainly, sir, but between possibility and reality is all the region of the infinite.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

While this was taking place, a rustic in a wide salakot [ 432 ] with a big bandage on his neck was examining the corpse and the rope.
— from The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal

Even such of them as were not in a state of villanage, were tenants at will, who paid a rent in no respect equivalent to the subsistence which the land afforded them.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

The philosopher himself deserved some share of the reproach, if it be true that his rigorous exaction of Quadringenties, above three hundred thousand pounds which he had lent at high interest, provoked a rebellion in Britain, (Dion Cassius, l. lxii.
— 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

Pages 44 - 67 CHAPTER V SPEECH AND SIGNIFICATION Sounds well fitted to be symbols.—Language has a structure independent of things.—Words, remaining identical, serve to identify things that change.—Language the dialectical garment of facts.—Words are wise men's counters.—Nominalism right in psychology and realism in logic.—Literature moves between the extremes of music and denotation.—Sound and object, in their sensuous presence, may have affinity.—Syntax positively representative.—Yet it vitiates what it represents.—Difficulty in subduing a living medium.—Language foreshortens experience.—It is a perpetual mythology.—It may be apt or inapt, with equal richness.—Absolute language a possible but foolish art Pages 68 - 86 CHAPTER VI POETRY AND PROSE Force of primary expressions.—Its exclusiveness and narrowness.—Rudimentary poetry an incantation or charm.—Inspiration irresponsible.—Plato's discriminating view.—Explosive and pregnant
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

In some countries there are people who by choice eat dog’s flesh; dogs are invariably savage in the presence of these persons, as recognising in them enemies at whose hands they may one day come to harm.
— from Unconscious Memory by Samuel Butler

The tragic breath, that had already been given by the prelude, passed and repassed in the orchestra.
— from The Triumph of Death by Gabriele D'Annunzio

Philip Hale, the Boston music-critic, has written learnedly on the relation of tones and colours, and that astonishing poet, Arthur Rimbaud, in his Alchimie du Verbe, tells us: "I believe in all the enchantments.
— from Unicorns by James Huneker

Thou hast been placed, by an act of Divine Power, in Christ, and that same Power keeps thee there, planted and rooted in that Divine fulness of life and holiness which there is in Him.
— from Holy in Christ Thoughts on the Calling of God's Children to be Holy as He is Holy by Andrew Murray

He had further suggested that the scheme should be submitted, in its legal aspects, to his friend Mr. Roundell Palmer, and Mr. Palmer, after reading it, opined that the law already gave adequate facilities for the purchase of freeholds by working men and others.
— from The Life of Florence Nightingale, vol. 2 of 2 by Cook, Edward Tyas, Sir

This added wrong led me to provoke a riot in the theatre.” “Poor boy,” she said tenderly.
— from Scaramouche: A Romance of the French Revolution by Rafael Sabatini

These pictures are reproduced in every form, and are to be met with in many books on Norway, and in very many Norwegian houses.
— from Norway by Beatrix Jungman

Both the past and the present are reflected in his essays with equal clearness.
— from Shelburne Essays, Third Series by Paul Elmer More

Most of these States had suspended or delayed their action until it could be known whether there was to be any concession made by the Republican party as represented in Congress.
— from Life of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States. v. 2 (of 2) by George Ticknor Curtis