Like all animals and plants, the cosmos has its own way of doing things, not wholly rational nor ideally best, but patient, fatal, and fruitful.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

Thus we know, from our own experience among modern workmen, who still pursue the same method, as well as from the traditions of the order, that the implements used in the quarries were few and simple, the work there requiring necessarily, indeed, but two tools, namely, the twenty-four inch gauge , or two foot rule, and the common gavel , or stone-cutter's hammer.
— from The Symbolism of Freemasonry Illustrating and Explaining Its Science and Philosophy, Its Legends, Myths and Symbols by Albert Gallatin Mackey

so should I (D.V.),—or rather, not I, but one Jane Rochester, a person whom as yet I knew not.
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë

[822] sovereign lord of the earth, viceroy of the world, sole commander and governor of all the creatures in it; to whose empire they are subject in particular, and yield obedience; far surpassing all the rest, not in body only, but in soul; [823] imaginis imago , [824] created to God's own [825] image, to that immortal and incorporeal substance, with all the faculties and powers belonging unto it; was at first pure, divine, perfect, happy, [826] created after God in true holiness and righteousness; Deo congruens , free from all manner of infirmities, and put in Paradise, to know God, to praise and glorify him, to do his will, Ut diis consimiles parturiat deos (as an old poet saith) to propagate the church.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

] Note 1121 ( return ) [ Now Isnik, Bursa, Mondania Ghio or Kemlik D'Anv.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

If we consider the ordinary course of human actions, we shall find, that the mind restrains not itself by any general and universal rules; but acts on most occasions as it is determined by its present motives and inclination.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

He knows his real nature is bound neither by physical encasement nor by breath, symbol of the mortal enslavement to air, to nature's elemental compulsions.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

Were this true, it would only prove that the government of our republican neighbours is better than our own; for these municipal institutions have been eminently beneficial to Canada.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

It was like the golden race neither in body nor in spirit.
— from Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica by Hesiod

I do not want to harm you; but I want to know something from you, which, if you tell me truly, you shall receive no injury; but, if you do not tell me, I tell you plainly that, as you are now in my power, so you shall never escape me.
— from The History of Margaret Catchpole, a Suffolk Girl by Richard Cobbold

to take a general view of the property exposed to depredation, and afterwards to examine the nature and effect of the Laws and regulations now in being for the purpose of preventing these evils; and last of all, to suggest remedies.
— from A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis Containing a Detail of the Various Crimes and Misdemeanors by which Public and Private Property and Security are, at Present, Injured and Endangered: and Suggesting Remedies for their Prevention by Patrick Colquhoun

He could recognize now its black silhouette fast to the wharf.
— from Mare Nostrum (Our Sea): A Novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez

“I spoiled your evening, you ungrateful boy!” replied Nan, innocently; but she smiled to herself in the darkness, and the reproach was sweet to her.
— from Not Like Other Girls by Rosa Nouchette Carey

Every man's life is sufficient.+ But thine is nearly finished, though thy soul reverences not itself, but places thy felicity in the souls of others.
— from Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius

Each room must be considered in relation to the other rooms near it, because, although it may be beautiful in itself, if it does not harmonize with the connecting rooms the whole effect will be a failure.
— from Furnishing the Home of Good Taste A Brief Sketch of the Period Styles in Interior Decoration with Suggestions as to Their Employment in the Homes of Today by Lucy Abbot Throop

Of these, the Kadaians, Buludupihs, Eraans and one large section of the Bisaias have embraced the religion of Mahomet; the others are Pagans, with no set form of religion, no idols, but believing in spirits and in a future life, which they localise on the top of the great mountain of Kina-balu.
— from British Borneo Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan, and North Borneo by Treacher, W. H. (William Hood), Sir

“Reality” naturally instigates belief.
— from The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy, and other essays in contemporary thought by John Dewey

Attention began to increase, and as early as June 26, Mr. Badger could say:— "We have received nine, I believe good and spiritual members into the church.
— from Memoir of Rev. Joseph Badger Fourth Edition by E. G. (Elihu Goodwin) Holland

It requires no inspiration, but only ordinary foresight, to see the prospect of [518] a rapid and almost measureless increase of wealth, and of all that belongs to the splendor of a nation, in the next half century of the United States.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 15, Nos. 85-90, April 1872-September 1872 A Monthly Magazine by Various