But this is a subject foreign to my present purposes; it is sufficient to say that a chorus, &c., of elaborate harmony displayed before me, as in a piece of arras work, the whole of my past life—not as if recalled by an act of memory, but as if present and incarnated in the music; no longer painful to dwell upon; but the detail of its incidents removed or blended in some hazy abstraction, and its passions exalted, spiritualized, and sublimed.
— from Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey

The degrees of stress are really infinite, but for practical purposes it is sufficient to distinguish between (1.)
— from A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges by George Martin Lane

He wishes to please both sides of a [ 353 ] moral issue, on the idea that, as the present policy is in his individual judgment best for all concerned, the end justifies the means.
— from The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by James H. (James Henderson) Blount

To a philosophic and pious mind, the races themselves are marks of Divine chirography clearly traced in black and white as on their skin; and if this simile holds good, the yellow race forms a precious page inscribed in hieroglyphics of gold!
— from Bushido, the Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe

Prayer purifies; it is a self-preached sermon.
— 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.

Very likely Amelia was not like the portrait the Major had formed of her: there was a figure in a book of fashions which his sisters had in England, and with which William had made away privately, pasting it into the lid of his desk, and fancying he saw some resemblance to Mrs. Osborne in the print, whereas I have seen it, and can vouch that it is but the picture of a high-waisted gown with an impossible doll's face simpering over it—and, perhaps, Mr. Dobbin's sentimental Amelia was no more like the real one than this absurd little print which he cherished.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Like all other arts, the Science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can only be acquired by long and patient study nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it.
— from A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

I would never have dreamt of suspecting the doctor, had not Poirot put it into my head.
— from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

And if truth to life is the main thing the drama should keep in view, how is it possible for any average understanding to be satisfied when the action is supposed to pass in the time of King Pepin or Charlemagne, and the principal personage in it they represent to be the Emperor Heraclius who entered Jerusalem with the cross and won the Holy Sepulchre, like Godfrey of Bouillon, there being years innumerable between the one and the other?
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

ANT: Part, portion, item, imperfection, incompleteness, miscalculation, misinterpretation.
— from A Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms or, Synonyms and Words of Opposite Meaning by Samuel Fallows

When arrived at the reservoir of water provided for ablution, they wash their face, hands, and feet, from a feeling that personal purity is indicative of purity of the mind.
— from Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor Series One and Series Two in one Volume by R. (Robert) Walsh

Commerce was unhealthful, very few could live there; but believing that it might become a healthful place by the blessing of heaven to the Saints, and no more eligible place presenting itself, I considered it wisdom to make an attempt to build up a city.—Joseph Smith.
— from Outlines of Ecclesiastical History by B. H. (Brigham Henry) Roberts

In this space, however, it is in some parts a little wider, but in no part between projecting points is it more than one mile and a quarter.
— from Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Performed between the years 1818 and 1822 — Volume 2 by Philip Parker King

The first, though purely provisional, is invariably the point from which we start; the third is the only permanent or normal state; the second has but a modifying or rather a solvent influence, which qualifies it for regulating the transition from the first stage to the third.
— from A General View of Positivism Or, Summary exposition of the System of Thought and Life by Auguste Comte

In seeking for an interpretation that will harmonize with the general tenor of Buddhistic philosophy and positive psychology, it is incumbent that the irrefragable "Law of Causation," à l'œuvre in the phenomenal world, should be taken into account, and any attempted effort of explanation of unfamiliar powers, such as those exhibited by mediums, demands that a place should be found for them in the mosaic of cause and effect.
— from The Metaphysic of Christianity and Buddhism: A Symphony by D. M. (Dawsonne Melanchthon) Strong

He wouldn't take the medicine Mother Mayberry fixes for him if she didn't put peppermint in it.
— from The Road to Providence by Maria Thompson Daviess

He let go my hand, and taking a key from his pocket, put it in the lock, turned it slowly, then opened the door a little way, and motioned me to enter.
— from Richard Vandermarck: A Novel by Miriam Coles Harris

One other case that was tried in an Alcalde’s court is so illustrative of California life that the Reader will perhaps pardon its insertion at length.
— from The Life of Bret Harte, with Some Account of the California Pioneers by Henry Childs Merwin

Those prospects which are now opening out to our view are sufficient only to enable us to grasp certain particular phenomena in it and, perhaps, to reject the prejudices and misconceptions which have sprung up around them.
— from The Russian Turmoil; Memoirs: Military, Social, and Political by Anton Ivanovich Denikin

How admirable an instance of his propagating power is it, that from a little seed a massy root should strike into the bowels of the earth, a tall body and thick branches, with leaves and flowers of various colors, should break through the surface of the earth, and mount up towards heaven, when in the seed you neither smell the scent, nor see any firmness of a tree, nor behold any of those colors which you view in the flowers that the ears produce!
— from The Existence and Attributes of God, Volumes 1 and 2 by Stephen Charnock