Then as to the analysis of the ancients and the algebra of the moderns, besides that they embrace only matters highly abstract, and, to appearance, of no use, the former is so exclusively restricted to the consideration of figures, that it can exercise the understanding only on condition of greatly fatiguing the imagination; and, in the latter, there is so complete a subjection to certain rules and formulas, that there results an art full of confusion and obscurity calculated to embarrass, instead of a science fitted to cultivate the mind.
— from Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences by René Descartes

All the active thought with which she had before been representing to herself the trials of Lydgate's lot, and this young marriage union which, like her own, seemed to have its hidden as well as evident troubles—all this vivid sympathetic experience returned to her now as a power: it asserted itself as acquired knowledge asserts itself and will not let us see as we saw in the day of our ignorance.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

Though, on hearing the voice cf some unseen person slightly known to us, we say we recollect to whom the voice belongs, we do not use the same expression respecting the voices of those with whom we live.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James

New Zealand in its endemic plants is much more closely related to Australia, the nearest mainland, than to any other region: and this is what might have been expected; but it is also plainly related to South America, which, although the next nearest continent, is so enormously remote, that the fact becomes an anomaly.
— 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

He served the embryo Union with most precious service—a service that every man, woman and child in our thirty-eight States is to some extent receiving the benefit of to-day—and I for one here cheerfully, reverently throw my pebble on the cairn of his memory.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

The matter which goes to form gloomy dreams are mischances which to some extent really threaten us, though it be from some distance; imagination makes us look larger and nearer and more terrible than they are in reality.
— from The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Counsels and Maxims by Arthur Schopenhauer

Poetic feet being arbitrary combinations, contrived merely for the measuring of verses, and the ready ascertainment of the syllables that suit each rhythm, there is among prosodists a perplexing diversity of opinion, as to the number which we ought to recognize in our language.
— from The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown

Sappho still sighs there for love of her maiden companions, the plectrum of Alcaeus sounds its chords only to songs of earthly hardships by land and sea, Prometheus and Tantalus find no surcease from the pangs of torture, Sisyphus ever rolls the returning stone, and the Danaids fill the ever-emptying jars.
— from Horace and His Influence by Grant Showerman

ORWEL OSBORNE (Sir E.), revives the trade to the Levant —mentioned OSTERNA (Boppo ab)
— from The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 07 England's Naval Exploits Against Spain by Richard Hakluyt

he enquired smiling a trifle ruefully, "'tis my best." "Unmodish?" White hands were lifted, and sparkling eyes rolled themselves in agonised protest.
— from Our Admirable Betty: A Romance by Jeffery Farnol

[*Or, "ceremony": the Chinese term used signifying everything relating to gentlemanly and upright conduct.
— from Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation by Lafcadio Hearn

He was, in truth, in as great a panic as herself, and it was, according to the statement of the Duchess, mainly in order to save the President from threatened danger, that she eventually resolved to make concessions.
— from The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Complete (1555-66) by John Lothrop Motley