For in that case it would be possible, by the addition of others, to make two, three, four desires, and these disposed and situated in such a manner, as to have a determinate length, breadth and thickness; which is evidently absurd.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

He assumes indeed two nows—one which belongs to the object, the other which belongs to the subject, and marvels at the happy accident of their coincidence.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer

He complained of being still kept in tutelage; he had calculated that he could spend eight hundred sequins a month, and thought his allowance of two hundred sequins a month an insult.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

In order to avoid the inconveniency of such situations, every prudent man in every period of society, after the first establishment of the division of labour, must naturally have endeavoured to manage his affairs in such a manner, as to have at all times by him, besides the peculiar produce of his own industry, a certain quantity of some one commodity or other, such as he imagined few people would be likely to refuse in exchange for the produce of their industry.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Lattice covered the windows, but it was like trying to sleep at midday; and the heat and heaviness of the air oppressed me.
— from The Fire People by Ray Cummings

Maybe it still flourishes in its native spot; for boys and their pastimes are swayed by periodic forces inscrutable to man; so that tops and marbles reappear in their due season, regular like the sun and moon; and the harmless art of knucklebones has seen the fall of the Roman empire and the rise of the United States.
— from The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 16 by Robert Louis Stevenson

And she had an idea that her aunt would not wish Brooke to marry her,—would think that Brooke should do better; and she was quite clear that in such a matter as this her aunt's wishes must be law.
— from He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope

His principal creditor said to him: "You are too straightforward a man and too honest and enterprising a merchant to go under.
— from Perley's Reminiscences, v. 1-2 of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis by Benjamin Perley Poore

Now Gudmund the Powerful heard what has passed between Thorkel and Skarphedinn, and said, "Ye all know how things fared between us and the men of Lightwater, but I have never suffered such scorn and mocking at their hands as has befallen Thorkel from Skarphedinn,
— from The Story of Burnt Njal: The Great Icelandic Tribune, Jurist, and Counsellor by Unknown

Such a marriage appealed to her as a practical way of playing one house of Hapsburg against the other, although she plausibly represented it as a new tie that would bind France and the Hapsburgs in greater amity.
— from The Wars of Religion in France 1559-1576 The Huguenots, Catherine de Medici and Philip II by James Westfall Thompson

'I shall not descend till the girl joins the rest;' and he now stood in such a manner as to have a view of the robbers and the old woman, as well as of the tunnel's mouth.
— from The Four Canadian Highwaymen; Or, The Robbers of Markham Swamp by J. E. (Joseph Edmund) Collins

Elizabeth was the wind itself for speed, and many a time he and John had tried in vain to leave her behind.
— from 'Lizbeth of the Dale by Mary Esther Miller MacGregor

"Sometimes as much as two hours and a quarter passes before a United States Secret Service man gets the right dope on one of them code letters."
— from Worrying Won't Win by Montague Glass

The exhalations arising from the swamps and morasses around them have a powerful effect on these new settlers, but all are intent on preparing for the winter.
— from Audubon and His Journals, Volume 2 (of 2) by John James Audubon