Amongst civilized nations revolts are rarely excited, except by such persons as have nothing to lose by them; and if the laws of a democracy are not always worthy of respect, at least they always obtain it; for those who usually infringe the laws have no excuse for not complying with the enactments they have themselves made, and by which they are themselves benefited, whilst the citizens whose interests might be promoted by the infraction of them are induced, by their character and their stations, to submit to the decisions of the legislature, whatever they may be.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville

M. Intelligere recte, agere recte, et eloqui recte omnia necessaria.
— from The Orbis Pictus by Johann Amos Comenius

To plants all things are, as a rule, at rest, eternal, every object like itself.
— from Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

[Pg 144] thing in reverse order, in every region where the surface configuration has been determined by rain and river erosion, every gully and every ravine descends to a valley.
— from The Geography of the Region about Devil's Lake and the Dalles of the Wisconsin With Some Notes on Its Surface Geology by Rollin D. Salisbury

Among civilized nations revolts are rarely excited except by such persons as have nothing to lose by them; and if the laws of a democracy are not always worthy of respect, at least they always obtain it; for those who usually infringe the laws have no excuse for not complying with the enactments they have themselves made, and by which they are themselves benefited, while the citizens whose interests might be promoted by the infraction of them, are induced, by their character and their station, to submit to the decisions of the legislature, whatever they may be.
— from American Institutions and Their Influence by Alexis de Tocqueville

With an irresistible impulse the legions dashed down to the river, all ranks elbowing each other and shouting "Victory!
— from The Death of the Gods (Christ and Antichrist, 1 of 3) by Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky

On the 31st May the Consiglio was called together, and it decided: " redire ad Romanam ecclesiam et sub regimine s. D.N. "
— from Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, Volume 2 (of 3) Illustrating the Arms, Arts, and Literature of Italy, from 1440 To 1630. by James Dennistoun

Some of the older readers and sterner critics will look for romantic and rather exaggerated events; but he thinks they will look in vain, for as we grow older we become more reasonable, and do not expect showers of gold to fall upon every seedy hero, or to see nice young gentlemen leap over lofty precipices without sometimes being dashed to pieces.
— from Little By Little; or, The Cruise of the Flyaway by Oliver Optic

“It was that same rude automatic recorder,” Edison explained, “that indirectly—yet not by accident, but by logical deduction—led me long afterward to invent the phonograph.
— from Inventors at Work, with Chapters on Discovery by George Iles

I ran and ran, elbowing early guests, trampling flowers, knocking over an apple cart across from the Penny Arcade.
— from Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow

Thou wilt see that it was a statute restoring all real estate every fiftieth year to the original possessors thereof, and providing for the release of all prisoners, the manumission of all slaves, the cessation of all oppressions--a year of joy to all that were poor and afflicted.
— from Arius the Libyan: A Romance of the Primitive Church by Nathan C. (Nathan Chapman) Kouns

Edith had a place near the reading-desk where she could see the countenances of all those children who were sitting side by side in row after row and filling every seat in the room, a restless, eager, expectant crowd, half disciplined and only held quiet by the order and authority they had learned to respect.
— from Cast Adrift by T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur