I cut off my superfluous and unnecessary desires, I subdue my proud and wanton will and chastise it with obedience, and with God's help I attain freedom of spirit and with it spiritual joy.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

In his articles on "Ecce Homo" he expresses the hope "that the present tendency to treat the old belief of man with a precipitate, shallow, and unexamining disparagement, is simply a distemper, that inflicts for a time the moral atmosphere, that is due, like plagues and fevers, to our own previous folly and neglect; and that when it has served its work of admonition and reform, will be allowed to pass away."
— from The Grand Old Man Or, the Life and Public Services of the Right Honorable William Ewart Gladstone, Four Times Prime Minister of England by Richard B. (Richard Briscoe) Cook

At the head of the flight he stopped, staring at us. "Desire," I spoke as naturally as I could manage, [Pg 255] "this is Mr. Vere.
— from The Thing from the Lake by Eleanor M. (Eleanor Marie) Ingram

The avowed resolution of Kentucky to deal with the slavery question in the most humane manner and to stop any unscrupulous dealing in slaves for the mere sake of profit is nowhere more clearly shown than in the firm action which was taken not only in the court room but in the legislative halls when it was found that advantage had been taken of the letter of the law at the expense of its spirit.
— from The Journal of Negro History, Volume 3, 1918 by Various

Hale said, "An unwise decision, it seems to me.
— from Shaman by Robert Shea

The sudden and unexpected declaration in September of the Union of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia which caused so much perturbation in Europe, and resulted in a war between Servia and Bulgaria, left the French quite indifferent; but the imminence of hostilities between England and Burmah provoked French ill-humour, which was all the more inexcusable because no protest had ever been made against French proceedings in Tonquin and Madagascar.
— from Lord Lyons: A Record of British Diplomacy, Vol. 2 of 2 by Newton, Thomas Wodehouse Legh, Baron

Thin streams of water, that were mere films of mist, swayed and undulated downward in sheer descents of hundreds of feet.
— from A Son Of The Sun by Jack London