Although the belief that an organ so perfect as the eye could have been formed by natural selection, is enough to stagger any one; yet in the case of any organ, if we know of a long series of gradations in complexity, each good for its possessor, then under changing conditions of life, there is no logical impossibility in the acquirement of any conceivable degree of perfection through natural selection.
— 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

With grief the leader of the Lycian band Saw the wide waste of his destructive hand: His bended bow against the chief he drew; Swift to the mark the thirsty arrow flew, Whose forky point the hollow breastplate tore, Deep in his shoulder pierced, and drank the gore: The rushing stream his brazen armour dyed, While the proud archer thus exulting cried: "Hither, ye Trojans, hither drive your steeds! Lo!
— from The Iliad by Homer

Although the belief that an organ so perfect as the eye could have been formed by natural selection, is more than enough to stagger any one; yet in the case of any organ, if we know of a long series of gradations in complexity, each good for its possessor, then, under changing conditions of life, there is no logical impossibility in the acquirement of any conceivable degree of perfection through natural selection.
— 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

As Cortes paid attention to every circumstance, he ordered myself and Martin Camos of Biscay into his presence, and asked us what our opinion was of the word Castilan , Castilan , which the Indians of Campeachy had so often repeated when we landed there, under the command of Hernandez de Cordoba.
— from The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 1 (of 2) Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain. by Bernal Díaz del Castillo

The bounds, moreover, which it is forced to set to its speculative exercise, form likewise a check upon the fallacious pretensions of opponents; and thus what remains of its possessions, after these exaggerated claims have been disallowed, is secure from attack or usurpation.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

"What picnic!" asked the eldest Corner House girl at the other end of the wire.
— from The Corner House Girls Growing Up What Happened First, What Came Next. And How It Ended by Grace Brooks Hill

But when he saw that he could not prevail against these evil counsels, he called the Gods to witness, crying, “The storm strikes upon me, and I may not stand against it.
— from Stories from Virgil by Alfred John Church

Mr. Dillwyn has changed Lamarck's name to Vitulina for this, and given the name of Abbatis to the variety more lengthened, figured by Chemnitz; but which, from specimens now before us, we consider with Lamarck only as a variety, possessing all the essential characters here given to both.
— from Zoological Illustrations, Volume 1 or, Original Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, or Interesting Animals by William Swainson

The three plays were at all events very popular and occupy an important place among the early chronicle histories.
— from Tragedy by Ashley Horace Thorndike

If I had simply pretended to be telephoning, the people at the exchange could have told you at once that there hadn't been a call from White Gables that night."
— from The Woman in Black by E. C. (Edmund Clerihew) Bentley

To him the physical well-being of the masses was a more important question than their spiritual enlightenment, and according to his ideas a moral progress was only possible after the economical condition had been considerably bettered.
— from The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century by Leo Wiener

A well-aimed shot would have avenged the wrong, but Joutel was clearly a mild and moderate person; and the elder Cavelier had constantly opposed all plans of violence.
— from France and England in North America, Part III: La Salle, Discovery of The Great West by Francis Parkman

1 His place among the English classics has, from the foreign point of view, never been a dubious question, a matter of capricious taste and unstable ideals.
— from Laurence Sterne in Germany A Contribution to the Study of the Literary Relations of England and Germany in the Eighteenth Century by Harvey W. (Harvey Waterman) Hewett-Thayer