He cannot himself make use of his wisdom, and his perfect peace, contentment, and blessedness directly contradict the nature of man, and preclude us from forming any concrete idea of him.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer

Prudence itself would command us to show, even if defect or diversion of natural sensibility had prevented us from feeling, a due interest and qualified anxiety for the offspring and representatives of our nobler being.
— from Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

That modest and lenient fellow-feeling which gave such charm to his companionship breathes in his gravest writing, and prevents us from finding any page of it cold or hard or dry."
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson

" The Volscians, determined on trying the slender hope they had in arms, all other being now cut off, besides many other disadvantages, having come to an engagement in a place unfavourable for fighting, and still more so for retreat, when they were being cut down on every side, from fighting have recourse to entreaties; having given up their general and surrendered their arms, they are sent under the yoke and dismissed full of disgrace and suffering, with one garment each.
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy

The feast was long, noisy, ill served; the guests were so crowded that they could hardly move their elbows; and the narrow planks used for forms almost broke down under their weight.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Take of red Poppies four pounds, sprinkle them with white Wine two pounds, then distil them in a common still, let the distilled water be poured upon fresh flowers and repeated three times; to which distilled water add two Nutmegs sliced, red Poppy flowers a pugil, Sugar two ounces, set it in the sun to give it a pleasing sharpness; if the sharpness be more than you would have it, put some of the same water to it which was not set in the sun.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

Whether these were a remnant of Essene Judaism, or whether such practices had by this time spread throughout the whole body, it is impossible to say; but the fact of their existence prevents us from founding an argument on the use of magic, as an absolutely distinctive feature of Essenism.
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon A revised text with introductions, notes and dissertations by J. B. (Joseph Barber) Lightfoot

This hotel is on a magnificent scale of height and breadth, its staircases and corridors being the most spacious I have seen; but there is a kind of meagreness in the life there, and a certain lack of heartiness, that prevented us from feeling at home.
— from Passages from the French and Italian Notebooks, Volume 2. by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Preserve us from famine and scarcity.
— from Works of Martin Luther, with Introductions and Notes (Volume II) by Martin Luther

I have always hesitated about putting you to [ 213 ] the test; permit me now, however, to take the place of the miserable fugitive.’ “And without waiting for an answer he picked up Felters’ foil, and cried— “‘En garde!’ “I literally did not know what I was doing.
— from Major Frank by A. L. G. (Anna Louisa Geertruida) Bosboom-Toussaint

A board a foot long, 7/8-inch thick, must also be put under F F at the stern.
— from St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, January 1878, No. 3 by Various

What can save us at all and prevent us from flying asunder into a chaos of mutually repellent solipsisms?
— from The Meaning of Truth by William James

It is true that the position he occupied barred the way to Frankfort and to France, and he felt certain that he could prevent us from forcing a passage.
— from The Memoirs of General Baron de Marbot by Marbot, Jean-Baptiste-Antoine-Marcelin, baron de