Several of the fancies that legend has attached to the brief story of the Magi in St. Matthew, such as the royal dignity of the persons; their location, now in Arabia, now (as here) at Saba in Persia, and again (as in Hayton and the Catalan Map) in Tarsia or Eastern Turkestan; the notion that one of them was a Negro, and so on, probably grew out of the arbitrary application of passages in the Old Testament, such as: " Venient legati
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Rustichello of Pisa

To call such passages—which Jonson never intended for publication—plagiarism, is to obscure the significance of words.
— from Every Man in His Humor by Ben Jonson

But it does mean that we may produce in schools a projection in type of the society we should like to realize, and by forming minds in accord with it gradually modify the larger and more recalcitrant features of adult society.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey

To call such passages — which Jonson never intended for publication — plagiarism, is to obscure the significance of words.
— from Epicoene; Or, The Silent Woman by Ben Jonson

Now observe the case of the several breeds of pigeons: they are descended from a pigeon (including two or three sub-species or geographical races) of a bluish colour, with certain bars and other marks; and when any breed assumes by simple variation a bluish tint, these bars and other marks invariably reappear; but without any other change of form or character.
— 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

Once more the effect produced is that of the snowball.
— from Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic by Henri Bergson

The sound of tools to a clever workman who loves his work is like the tentative sounds of the orchestra to the violinist who has to bear his part in the overture: the strong fibres begin their accustomed thrill, and what was a moment before joy, vexation, or ambition, begins its change into energy.
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot

My friend and I had both been educated in one school, or rather I was his pupil in the opinion, that steady adherence to principle was the only road to honour; a ceaseless observance of the laws of general utility, the only conscientious aim of human ambition.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

For what mysteries can purify, if those of the sun and moon, which are esteemed the chief of the celestial gods, do not purify?
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

A third order, Pedipalpida, is that of the scorpion spiders, or "whip scorpions" of the tropics; the fourth, Solpugida, contains certain ugly creatures intermediate between scorpions and spiders; and the fifth order, Phalangida, is that of the small-bodied, vastly long-legged things called "harvestmen" in England and daddy longlegs by us, which run about in the summer heat, and feed on minute insects.
— from Zoölogy: The Science of Animal Life Popular Science Library, Volume XII (of 16), P. F. Collier & Son Company, 1922 by Ernest Ingersoll

The scene is wilder, more freakishly savage, as we go on, and knowing that it is a funereal way and that only, and that it leads to graves and to nothing else, our procession imperceptibly took on the sombre character of an expedition after death, relieved by I know not what that is droll in the impish forms of the crags, and the reaction of our natures against this unnecessary accumulation of grim desolation.
— from My Winter on the Nile Eighteenth Edition by Charles Dudley Warner

[*] So far the queen of Scots seemed plainly to have the advantage in the contest; and the English commissioners might have been surprised that Murray had made so weak a defence, and had suppressed all the material imputations against that princess, on which his party had ever so strenuously insisted, had not some private conferences previously informed them of the secret.
— from The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part D. From Elizabeth to James I. by David Hume

Mr. Chickson smiled pleasantly, but said nothing; and when Mrs. Slapman's attention was momentarily attracted by a passing remark from another person, the poet improved the opportunity to slip away and take another glass of champagne in the corner.
— from Round the Block: An American Novel by John Bell Bouton

Believe me, dear Mistress, that my Mind and my Will-power were absolutely torn between two Impulses—the one prompting me to put a stop to this dangerous and purposeless Interview, this obvious Trap set to catch a great and unsuspecting Artist unawares; and the other urging me not to interfere, but rather to allow Destiny, Fate or the Will of God alone to straighten out the Web of my Friend's Life, which had been embroiled by such Passions as were foreign to his noble Nature.
— from His Majesty's Well-Beloved An Episode in the Life of Mr. Thomas Betteron as told by His Friend John Honeywood by Orczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness

'A third kind of punishment is that of the Skvoz-stroï , literally, through the ranks .
— from Continental Monthly , Vol. 5, No. 6, June, 1864 Devoted to Literature and National Policy by Various

It is evident that we may escape the use of this troublesome standard, if we can obtain some material which has a perfectly uniform sensitiveness; for we may then state the sensitiveness of our plates in terms of this substance, regardless of the brilliancy of our source.
— from Scientific American Supplement, No. 520, December 19, 1885 by Various