I well remember how I used to mount a music-stool for the purpose of unhooking it, holding it in my hand, and searching into those bonny wells of eyes, whose glance under their hazel lashes seemed like a pencilled laugh; and well I liked to note the colouring of the cheek, and the expression of the mouth."
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

For then, an inclined plane of unfortunate infants would be handed over to the prosiest and worst of all the teachers with good intentions, whom nobody older would endure.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

Infinite divisibility is applicable only to a quantum continuum, and is based entirely on the infinite divisibility of space, But in a quantum discretum the multitude of parts or units is always determined, and hence always equal to some number.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

From this spirit it happens, that in every political association which is formed upon the principle of uniting in a common interest a number of lesser sovereignties, there will be found a kind of eccentric tendency in the subordinate or inferior orbs, by the operation of which there will be a perpetual effort in each to fly off from the common centre.
— from The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton

until the Peace of Utrecht in 1713; that is, for a quarter of a century.
— from The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

That he was far from excluding the modern principle of utility in politics is sufficiently evident from other passages; in which 'the most beneficial is affirmed to be the most honourable', and also 'the most sacred'.
— from The Republic by Plato

The poorest day that passes over us is the conflux of two eternities; it is made-up of currents that issue from the remotest part, and flow onwards into the remotest future.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

Why does the painting of any paradise or Utopia, in heaven or on earth, awaken such yawnings for nirvana and escape?
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James

I Come now to the Pyrates that have rose since the Peace of Utrecht ; in War Time there is no room for any, because all those of a roving advent’rous Disposition find Employment in Privateers, so there is no Opportunity for Pyrates; like our Mobs in London, when they come to any Height, our Superiors order out the Train Bands, and when once they are raised, the others are suppressed of Course; I take the Reason of it to be, that the Mob go into the tame Army, and immediately from notorious Breakers of the Peace, become, by being put into order, solemn Preservers of it.
— from A General History of the Pyrates: from their first rise and settlement in the island of Providence, to the present time by Daniel Defoe

Caesar was wont himself to guide, and watch over, the election movements from as near a point as possible of Upper Italy.
— from The History of Rome, Book V The Establishment of the Military Monarchy by Theodor Mommsen

His works have made Agra, of all cities in India, the place of unrivaled interest.
— from East of Suez Ceylon, India, China and Japan by Frederic Courtland Penfield

And so, like a helmsman too quick with his tiller, Eschewing Charybdis they steer upon Scylla, To perish of utter intemperance—Yes!
— from My Life as an Author by Martin Farquhar Tupper

i ke ie, a ua hakuia ka hulu ma ka lihilihi o ke poi oia ua ipu la.
— from The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai by S. N. Haleole

Yet it certainly would be cooler——” He stood, hesitating, looking first one way and then the other—a melancholy picture of utter infirmity of purpose!
— from Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (Illustrated) by Lewis Carroll

Some day, perhaps, a lost novel of hers, written during the apparently idle years { 81} of her residence at Bath, will be identified by the prevalence of "uns" in its text.
— from Jane Austen and Her Country-house Comedy by W. H. (William Henry) Helm

You may thus pass an hour or two pleasantly, obtain useful information, and you need not carry on the acquaintance unless you choose to do so.
— from The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness Being a Complete Guide for a Gentleman's Conduct in All His Relations Towards Society by Cecil B. Hartley

During the rainy season a large part of Uilcapampa is absolutely impenetrable.
— from Inca Land: Explorations in the Highlands of Peru by Hiram Bingham

If we do, we can assume he’s not waiting to pounce on us in the ravine.
— from Secret Mission to Alaska Sandy Steele Adventures #5 by Robert Leckie