The unconscious processes that take place in nature are lower even than the stupidity of man, since in stupidity there is, anyway, consciousness and will, while in those processes there is absolutely nothing.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Or coming into lower, less unspeakable provinces, is not all Loyalty akin to religious Faith also?
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

Naturally, the picture is not all lurid.
— from Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois

You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need, and, like the Tempest , seems to preach to us from end to end, 'Thou must be patient,' 'Bear free and patient thoughts.'
— from Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth by A. C. (Andrew Cecil) Bradley

It is evident that unless there be some pre-existing tendency to believe in masses and holy water, the option offered to the will by Pascal is not a living option.
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James

“And this prisoner is not Arsène Lupin?” “No.”
— from The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar by Maurice Leblanc

But I only went to see him when that phase came over me, and when my dreams had reached such a point of bliss that it became essential at once to embrace my fellows and all mankind; and for that purpose I needed, at least, one human being, actually existing.
— from Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

"Heaven knows, beloved of my life," said he, "that my praise is not a lover's praise, but the truth.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

In the case of the official nobility, as one might term the rank of higher magistracy—which one must acquire by merit—the social position is not attached like property to the person but to his office, and equality is not thereby disturbed; for, if a man gives up office, he lays down with it his official rank and falls back into the rank of his fellows.
— from Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Essay by Immanuel Kant

Love that would gain a mastery To wield for pelf or power, Is not a love born clean and pure O'er which no evils lower,
— from Our Profession and Other Poems by Jared Barhite

Lastly, I have to mention two obscene poems of great popularity, Il Nicchio and L'Ugellino .
— from Renaissance in Italy, Volume 4 (of 7) Italian Literature, Part 1 by John Addington Symonds

The walk from Mayfair to Piccadilly is not a long one, and Joseph, with his companion, met few wayfarers as they walked swiftly among the swept and lighted streets, wound in and out among the palaces of the West End.
— from The Angel by Guy Thorne

A writer in the Morning Herald of August, 1825, states thus: "The History of the Old Church of Saint Pancras is not a little singular; it is one of the oldest in the county of Middlesex, and the parish it belongs to one of the largest, being eighteen miles in circumference.
— from The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 19, No. 552, June 16, 1832 by Various

[Pg_8] It needed a long walk on the downs to get myself once more in tune with the outdoor world after that distuning experience; but just before quitting the house in the Dyke Road an old memory came to me and gave me some relief, inasmuch as it caused me to smile.
— from Birds and Man by W. H. (William Henry) Hudson

The first of these matters is known to every good farmer,—the second may be obtained,—and the third may be accomplished by practising the modes in which I have succeeded at a small comparative expense and trouble, and which is instanced in a meadow immediately fronting Brompton Crescent, the property of Angus Macdonald, Esq. which land was very greatly encumbered with noxious weeds of all kinds: but, by the following plan, the grasses were encouraged to grow up to the exclusion of all other plants; and though it has been laid down more than ten years, the pasturage is now at least equal to any in the county.
— from The Botanist's Companion, Volume II Or an Introduction to the Knowledge of Practical Botany, and the Uses of Plants. Either Growing Wild in Great Britain, or Cultivated for the Puroses of Agriculture, Medicine, Rural Oeconomy, or the Arts by William Salisbury

It is well known, and has been already asserted, upon this occasion, that in the lower courts of justice, though the prisoner may plead his character, in his own defence, his prosecutor is not at liberty to produce it to his disadvantage.
— from The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Volume 10 Parlimentary Debates I by Samuel Johnson