Belief in a thousand hells and heavens will not lift the apathetic out of apathy or hold back the passionate from passion; while a newly planted and ungalled community, in blessed forgetfulness of rewards or punishments, of cosmic needs or celestial sanctions, will know how to live cheerily and virtuously for life's own sake, putting to shame those thin vaticinations.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

Much more let prior, and as it were, rehearsal scenes of Federation come and go, henceforward, as they list; and, on Plains and under City-walls, innumerable regimental bands blare off into the Inane, without note from us.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

For frequently they are known only to a very few persons, while all the rest are ignorant of them, especially if the state is a large one; and when they are reported to other persons in other localities, there is no sufficient authority to give them prompt and unwavering credence, although they are reported to the faithful by the faithful.
— from The City of God, Volume II by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

After each of these signal victories, captain Gianavel made a suitable discourse to his men, causing them to kneel down, and return thanks to the Almighty for his providential protection; and usually concluded with the eleventh psalm, where the subject is placing confidence in God.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

Urbs, in the same neighborhood, was a royal chase of the kings of Lombardy, and a small river, which excused the prediction, "penetrabis ad urbem," (Cluver. Ital.
— 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

Most of these 3130 that are large enough to demand even so much as a single word here are poorly adapted to human habitation, being in most instances, without good harbors or other landing places, and usually covered either with dense jungle or inhospitable mountains, or both.
— from The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by James H. (James Henderson) Blount

After the praises of Stilicho became offensive and criminal, Claudian was exposed to the enmity of a powerful and unforgiving courtier, whom he had provoked by the insolence of wit.
— 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

The French prettily term them accroche-cœurs , whilst in the United States they are plainly and unpleasantly called SPIT-CURLS .
— from A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James. by John Camden Hotten

The good citizen ought to triumph not by frightening his opponents but by beating them fairly in argument; and a wise city, without over-distinguishing its best advisers, will nevertheless not deprive them of their due, and, far from punishing an unlucky counsellor, will not even regard him as disgraced.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

In the present state of our knowledge upon this point I should consider such doubts merely as a proof that the sceptic had either not examined the evidence, or, having examined it, refused to accept its plain and unavoidable consequences.
— from The Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes: An Index of the Project Gutenberg Editions by Oliver Wendell Holmes

A hopeless, hellish time of sack, plunder, murder, famine, plague, and unnatural crime; a glorious age, in which flourished the gentlest and sweetest poet that ever sang, and the grimmest and grandest that ever upbraided a godless generation for its sins,—in which Petrarch was crowned with laurel at Rome, and Dante wandered in despair from court to court, learning in the bitterness of his exile's heart, "come sa di sale Lo pane altrui, e come è duro calle
— from Italian Journeys by William Dean Howells

drunk again— Too soon will poverty assail us; Can't you a single night refrain From tippling in that cursed ale-house?
— from Gallery of Comicalities; Embracing Humorous Sketches by Robert Cruikshank

Our Main Business, therefore, is, how to find out Methods to extend our Trade ; for Projects , and United Companies , are only contriv'd to enrich a few.
— from A Stiptick for a Bleeding Nation Or, a safe and speedy way to restore publick credit, and pay the national debts by Unknown

For it is on its value as a piece of perfect and unchangeable coloring, that the claims of this edifice to our respect are finally rested; and a deaf man might as well pretend to pronounce judgment on the merits of a full orchestra, as an architect trained in the composition of form only, to discern the beauty of St. Mark’s.
— from The Stones of Venice, Volume 2 (of 3), by John Ruskin

The act of rolling up into a passive ball may be performed ( a ) under compulsion , as when it is her last resort in self-defence; ( b ) under a milder provocation , as one of three courses of behaviour, as when the resting-place is turned up to light, and the choice is offered between remaining quiet in place, creeping away at leisure, or rolling into a ball and dropping to the bottom; ( c ) or finally, under no special external stimulus , but rather from internal motive, the normal demand for rest and shady seclusion, presumably very strong in Clepsine after gorging itself with the blood of its turtle host.”
— from Animal Behaviour by C. Lloyd (Conwy Lloyd) Morgan

I should have mentioned that, on our approach to this island, the Commanders in Chief dispatched General Dundas with Commodore Thompson to the attack of Trinité, and another division under the command of Colonel Sir Charles Gordon, assisted by Captain Rogers of the Quebec, to Case de Navirre; while Sir [Pg 24] Charles Grey, assisted by Lieutenant General Prescott, and under cover of the Boyne, &c. made good his landing at Trois Rivieres: thus, by making three attacks upon distant parts of the island at the same time, the force and attention of the enemy was divided; and by that spirited conduct, which animated all parties, more particularly by the unanimity which prevailed between the army and navy, they all happily succeeded.
— from An Account of the Campaign in the West Indies, in the Year 1794 Under the Command of their Excellencies Lieutenant General Sir Charles Grey, K.B., and Vice Admiral Sir John Jervis, K.B. by Cooper Willyams

As the painters are always pilfering from the poets, why should not the poet annex the domain of the painter and use colour for the expression of his moods and music: blue for sentiment, and red for passion, grey for cultured melancholy, and green for descriptions?
— from Reviews by Oscar Wilde

He sat there, indifferent to or oblivious of the interest his presence aroused, unconsciously counting the vertebrae of the lady at the next table, who had evidently forgotten some essential part of her bodice.
— from The Hawk of Egypt by Joan Conquest