The same person landing on a desart island, as large as Great Britain, extends his property no farther than his immediate possession; though a numerous colony are esteemed the proprietors of the whole from the instant of their debarkment.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

It may therefore be said, though at first it seems paradoxical, that, at the present day, the most anti-democratic classes of the nation principally exhibit the kind of morality which may reasonably be anticipated from democracy.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

In the mean time, Minos, the king of Crete, solicits several princes to assist him in a war against Athens, to revenge the death of his son Androgeus, who had been murdered there.
— from The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII by Ovid

It is a truly wonderful fact—the wonder of which we are apt to overlook from familiarity—that all animals and all plants throughout all time and space should be related to each other in group subordinate to group, in the manner which we everywhere behold—namely, varieties of the same species most closely related together, species of the same genus less closely and unequally related together, forming sections and sub-genera, species of distinct genera much less closely related, and genera related in different degrees, forming sub-families, families, orders, sub-classes, and classes.
— 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

Not in one case out of a hundred can we pretend to assign any reason why this or that part differs, more or less, from the same part in the parents.
— 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

Present company always excepted, all women, great or little, are insincere, crooked, backbiters, envious, liars to the marrow of their bones, vain, trivial, merciless, unreasonable, and, as far as this is concerned [taps his forehead] excuse my outspokenness, a sparrow can give ten points to any philosopher in petticoats you like to name!
— from Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Seeing the Corcyraeans hard pressed, the Athenians began at length to assist them more unequivocally.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

So carried away had the visitors become by their interest attaching to this discussion of family matters, that their stay had been prolonged to a very improper and unfashionable length; but they suddenly recollected themselves now and took their departure.
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Charles Dudley Warner

"Cesar, the white horse in the Profeta?" "There are not two Cesars," said the stud-groom dryly.
— from The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

She had pledged herself to prevent this, and had made a private appeal to the maidservants with whose Sunday-out they interfered.
— from The Westcotes by Arthur Quiller-Couch

Years later, in one of the elaborations of the second Scienza Nuova made by Vico, we again meet with the idea and the phrase of a practical aspect of this science, in the title of a special concluding paragraph which he proposed to add to his work.
— from The Philosophy of Giambattista Vico by Benedetto Croce

The conduct of P. T., who, having abjured profit and only feigned revenge, was to get nothing by his roguery, is altogether incomprehensible, if we are to suppose that he was what he professed; but his conduct ceases to be a mystery if P. T. was Pope, who, having finished editing his letters, may be presumed to have had the same desire to find a pretext for printing them as he had exhibited in the instance of the correspondence with Wycherley.
— from The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 1 Poetry - Volume 1 by Alexander Pope

We landed at the Praya, the ancient and dirty stone quay which stretches along the shore for four miles, a spot of great commercial activity.
— from The Cruise of the 'Alerte' The narrative of a search for treasure on the desert island of Trinidad by E. F. (Edward Frederick) Knight

So with the beautiful picture of the goats upon the mountain, chewing the cud in the noontide heat -157- and stillness, and the goatherd, resting on his staff and watching them—a picture which no traveller among the mountains of Italy or Greece can have missed, or have forgotten: Quali si fanno ruminando manse Le capre, state rapide e proterve Sopra le cime avanti che sien pranse, Tacite al ombra mentre che 'l sol ferve, Guardate dal pastor che 'n su la verga
— from Dante. An essay. To which is added a translation of De Monarchia. by R. W. (Richard William) Church

I was about to propose that amount myself.”
— from Zibeline — Complete by Massa, Philippe, marquis de

and, as the two elder girls made this exclamation, Mary proceeded to a rapturous embrace.
— from The Daisy Chain, or Aspirations by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge

It is quite possible to ascertain, whether by women medical officers appointed to this end, or by the teachers themselves, the physical capacity of each girl, and to place her where this will not be exceeded.
— from Wear and Tear; Or, Hints for the Overworked by S. Weir (Silas Weir) Mitchell

The Earls of Tweeddale and Kincardine were both respectable in comparison with many of their political associates, and if they did not bring great talents to their party, they at least were not the source of flagrant scandal to any cause to which they adhered.
— from Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon — Volume 02 by Craik, Henry, Sir