I am aware that some maintain that women ought to have votes whether the majority wants them or not; but this is surely a strange and childish case of setting up formal democracy to the destruction of actual democracy.
— from What's Wrong with the World by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

On no point, however, is the ordinary consciousness of Europeans more unwilling to be corrected than on this matter, people now rave everywhere, even under the guise of science, about coming conditions of society in which "the exploiting character" is to be absent—that sounds to my ears as if they promised to invent a mode of life which should refrain from all organic functions.
— from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Nevertheless, such a condition can only subsist in deserts where those who try to till the soil cannot grow strong enough to maintain themselves against marauding herdsmen.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

His eyes beating looked steadfastly at cream curves of stone.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

I consider it as already a progress, as a proof of a freer, less petty, and more Roman conception of law, when the Roman Code of the Twelve Tables decreed that it was immaterial how much or how little the creditors in such a contingency cut off, " si plus minusve secuerunt, ne fraude esto. "
— from The Genealogy of Morals The Complete Works, Volume Thirteen, edited by Dr. Oscar Levy. by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Just at this critical moment, when we were both self-convicted of an arrant cowardice, which would have shamed a Canadian child of six years old, Mrs. O—— tapped at the door, and although generally a most unwelcome visitor, from her gossiping, mischievous propensities, I gladly let her in.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

They should arrange certain calls or signals between themselves.
— from Boy Scouts Handbook The First Edition, 1911 by Boy Scouts of America

These do not burrow into the skin but live outside in colonies, feeding on the skin and causing crusts or scabs.
— from Insects and Diseases A Popular Account of the Way in Which Insects may Spread or Cause some of our Common Diseases by Rennie Wilbur Doane

He reflected on his present paradoxical, hazardous position; on the tremendous problem which here confronted him; and on his desperate need of wisdom––yea, superhuman wisdom––to ward off from this child the net which he knew the subtlety and cruel cunning of shrewd, unscrupulous men would some day cause to be cast about her.
— from Carmen Ariza by Charles Francis Stocking

there will be found an excellent account of the many strange and capricious customs of savages.) has well observed, "it is not too much to say that the horrible dread of unknown evil hangs like a thick cloud over savage life, and embitters every pleasure."
— from The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex by Charles Darwin

“See all clear,” called out Spike.
— from Jack Tier; Or, The Florida Reef by James Fenimore Cooper

It flowed over the bed making the sheets and counterpane cloth of silver.
— from Forward from Babylon by Louis Golding

where I saw a company consisting of such as in the world had been judges influenced by friendship and gifts; then to the second exclamation, "O HOW LEARNED!"
— from The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love To Which is Added The Pleasures of Insanity Pertaining To Scortatory Love by Emanuel Swedenborg

The Honey Buzzard inhabits all the southern and central countries of Southern Europe, and during the course of its migrations frequently journeys as far as Western Africa.
— from Cassell's Book of Birds, Volume 2 (of 4) by Alfred Edmund Brehm

And of the article: "I read it to the cat—well, I never saw a cat carry on so before . .
— from Mark Twain: A Biography. Volume II, Part 2: 1886-1900 by Albert Bigelow Paine