Once, I remember, we were in the harbor of Barcelona, gazing townward; next, she bore me through the air to Sicily and bade me look up at blazing Ætna; then we took wing to Venice and sat in a gondola beneath the arch of the Rialto, and anon she set me down among the thronged spectators at the coronation of Napoleon.
— from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne

" I suppose one reason why we are seldom able to comfort our neighbours with our words is that our goodwill gets adulterated, in spite of ourselves, before it can pass our lips.
— from Silas Marner by George Eliot

But does it follow, that I must strive against the current of nature, which leads me to indolence and pleasure; that I must seclude myself, in some measure, from the commerce and society of men, which is so agreeable; and that I must torture my brains with subtilities and sophistries, at the very time that I cannot satisfy myself concerning the reasonableness of so painful an application, nor have any tolerable prospect of arriving by its means at truth and certainty.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

Had he not at one time longed with all his heart to establish a republic in Russia; then himself to be a Napoleon; then to be a philosopher; and then a strategist and the conqueror of Napoleon?
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

I doubt it: it would take for granted that they had both had an absolutely similar origin, and in that case we should have to assume that right back in infinity two similar things had also existed despite all the changes in the complete states and their creation of new qualities—an impossible assumption.
— from The Twilight of the Idols; or, How to Philosophize with the Hammer. The Antichrist Complete Works, Volume Sixteen by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

But whether this be from a true love of mankind and society, and such a charity as we owe all one to another, there is reason to doubt: for this is no more than what every man, who loves his own power, profit, or greatness, may and naturally must do, keep those animals from hurting, or destroying one another, who labour and drudge only for his pleasure and advantage; and so are taken care of, not out of any love the master has for them, but love of himself, and the profit they bring him: for if it be asked, what security, what fence is there, in such a state, against the violence and oppression of this absolute ruler?
— from Second Treatise of Government by John Locke

The Destinies, or the natures and fates of things, are justly made Pan’s sisters, as the chain of natural causes links together the rise, duration, and corruption; the exaltation, degeneration, and workings; the processes, the effects, and changes, of all that can any way happen to things.
— from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon

There is no reason why even religious men should oppose it; for as soon as the customary oath no longer serves, all the religious people will have to turn to their catechism, which says, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”
— from The Dawn of Day by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

I repeat the recommendation contained in my last annual message for the establishment of a branch of the Mint of the United States at the city of New York.
— from State of the Union Addresses (1790-2006) by United States. Presidents

Nuts of various kinds have long been associated with certain love charms, and some of these old customs, such as the cracking of nuts, still survive and are practised on All Hallow Eve.
— from The Mystery and Romance of Alchemy and Pharmacy by C. J. S. (Charles John Samuel) Thompson

He paused on the first landing and took in the satisfying prospect of his garden, edged around by summer flowers and showing a thrifty collection of needful vegetables. "
— from Janet of the Dunes by Harriet T. (Harriet Theresa) Comstock

CANTO XIV SOON as the charity of native land Wrought in my bosom, I the scatter'd leaves Collected, and to him restor'd, who now Was hoarse with utt'rance.
— from The Divine Comedy by Dante, Illustrated, Hell, Volume 06 by Dante Alighieri

The better to effect their purpose, they visited the Erenach and partook of his hospitality, and went to sleep, awaiting the coming of night.
— from An Irish Precursor of Dante A Study on the Vision of Heaven and Hell ascribed to the Eighth-century Irish Saint Adamnán, with Translation of the Irish Text by Charles Stuart Boswell

This education of the soul, or rather this elevation and glory of thought, which draws with it the will and the affections, not by means of blind faith or supernatural grace, not through an irrational and mystical impulse, but by the strength of a reformed intellect and by a palpable and well-considered enthusiasm, which science and the contemplation of Nature alone can give, this is the keynote of the poem.
— from The Heroic Enthusiasts (Gli Eroici Furori) Part the First An Ethical Poem by Giordano Bruno

In the south, where the people were less intelligent and laborious, oppressive taxation and unwise government caused a gradual increase of ignorance and poverty, and left as a legacy to the present day the conditions from which spring the Mafia of Sicily and the Camorra of Naples.
— from A Short History of Italy (476-1900) by Henry Dwight Sedgwick

It is the more surprising that this naturalist has forgotten to quote my opinion, since at the congress of naturalists at Hanover in 1866, I had placed this question on the agenda for an ordinary meeting.
— from Animal Parasites and Messmates by P. J. van (Pierre Joseph) Beneden

Any unexpected display of novel methods or of fighting strength, moral, mental, or physical, the last-named sometimes assuming the character of new and especially effective weapons or equipment, is included in the category of surprise.
— from Sound Military Decision by Naval War College (U.S.)