Some of the ancient historians appear, however, in their credulity, really to have believed, at least, a part of the story, as they seriously tell us, that the river Alpheus passes under the bed of the sea, and rises again in Sicily, near the fountain of Arethusa.
— from The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII by Ovid

Any rise in the average price of necessaries, unless it be compensated by a proportionable rise in the wages of labour, must necessarily diminish, more or less, the ability of the poor to bring up numerous families, and, consequently, to supply the demand for useful labour; whatever may be the state of that demand, whether increasing, stationary, or declining; or such as requires an increasing, stationary, or declining population.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

In this relation, then, the proposed government cannot be deemed a NATIONAL one; since its jurisdiction extends to certain enumerated objects only, and leaves to the several States a residuary and inviolable sovereignty over all other objects.
— from The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton

Intended for a more special and a baser use, this room, from which, in the daytime, I could see as far as the keep of Roussainville-le-Pin, was for a long time my place of refuge, doubtless because it was the only room whose door I was allowed to lock, whenever my occupation was such as required an inviolable solitude; reading or dreaming, secret tears or paroxysms of desire.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

In Ononis columnae five of the alternate stamens are rudimentary; and in some species of Viola three stamens are in this state, two retaining their proper function, but being of very small size.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

“For the love of God,” said Sancho, “be careful, your worship, how you give yourself those knocks on the head, for you may come across such a rock, and in such a way, that the very first may put an end to the whole contrivance of this penance; and I should think, if indeed knocks on the head seem necessary to you, and this business cannot be done without them, you might be content—as the whole thing is feigned, and counterfeit, and in joke—you might be content, I say, with giving them to yourself in the water, or against something soft, like cotton; and leave it all to me; for I’ll tell my lady that your worship knocked your head against a point of rock harder than a diamond.” “I thank thee for thy good intentions, friend Sancho,” answered Don Quixote, “but I would have thee know that all these things I am doing are not in joke, but very much in earnest, for anything else would be a transgression of the ordinances of chivalry, which forbid us to tell any lie whatever under the penalties due to apostasy; and to do one thing instead of another is just the same as lying; so my knocks on the head must be real, solid, and valid, without anything sophisticated or fanciful about them, and it will be needful to leave me some lint to dress my wounds, since fortune has compelled us to do without the balsam we lost.”
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

You shall rest by my fireside, and lean your dear head upon my shoulder, and read, and I shall be glad.
— from Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo Edited with a Biography of Juliette Drouet by Louis Guimbaud

The pack-saddle on which this was carried was provided with a rack like a sawbuck placed crosswise of the saddle, and raised above it so that the reel, with its wire, would revolve freely.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant

"With batter'd shield, and blood-smear'd sword Slits one beside the shore of Stord, With armour crushed and gashed sits he, A grim and ghastly sight to see; And round about in sorrow stand The warriors of his gallant band: Because the king of Dags' old race In Odin's hall must fill a place.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

“So then we shan’t meet again?” “Come and dine with me,” said Anna resolutely, angry it seemed with herself for her embarrassment, but flushing as she always did when she defined her position before a fresh person.
— from Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

In a medium deprived of friction, such a ring, as is shown by theoretical considerations of the subject from a mechanical point of view, would be perpetual and unchangeable.
— from The Principles of Chemistry, Volume I by Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev

Your natural interests are with the workers, and all the workers are shorn and robbed, as I shall try to show you.
— from The Common Sense of Socialism A Series of Letters Addressed to Jonathan Edwards, of Pittsburg by John Spargo

I believe most devoutly that there is such a reconciliation, as indeed Spencer himself pointed out, and a central thesis of this book is indeed that in the right expression of motherhood or foster-motherhood, woman may and increasingly will achieve the highest, happiest, and richest self-development.
— from Woman and Womanhood: A Search for Principles by C. W. (Caleb Williams) Saleeby

'He has acted,' said Mr. Goodman, as soon as he had done reading, 'like a man of sense and resolution; and I see no cause why you should be disconcerted at the loss of a lover, whose pretensions you did not design to favour.
— from The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless by Eliza Fowler Haywood

“Well, well; but now it is time to start, and Reilly, as I said, is waiting for you behind the garden.”
— from Willy Reilly The Works of William Carleton, Volume One by William Carleton

Still more dreaded and respected was the Vala or prophetess, who was worshipped as superhuman and regarded as in some way an embodiment of the subordinate Norns or Fates, as in the case of Veleda, Aurinia, and others who, as Tacitus assures us, were regarded as goddesses, in accordance with the German custom of thus venerating their fatidical women; and in the Volüspa the Vala communes on equal terms with Odin himself.
— from A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume III by Henry Charles Lea

The Khedive, Sherif, and Riaz all insist strongly on the absolute necessity of the capital punishment of the prime offenders, an opinion from which there are few, if any, dissentients.
— from Secret History of the English Occupation of Egypt Being a Personal Narrative of Events by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt