“You see the bad side of everything... materialist,” he
— from A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Iurevich Lermontov

There is in the soul of every man something naturally soft, low, enervated in a manner, and languid.
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth by Marcus Tullius Cicero

The crushing defeat of Chôshiû by the foreign squadrons coming so immediately after the repulse of his troops from the gates of the palace at Kiôto restored confidence to the Tycoon's government, and enabled them to declare firmly to the Mikado that the idea of expelling foreigners from the country and putting an end to trade was utterly and entirely impracticable, while on the other hand the demonstrated superiority of European methods of warfare had converted our bitterest and most determined foes into fast friends.
— from A Diplomat in Japan The inner history of the critical years in the evolution of Japan when the ports were opened and the monarchy restored, recorded by a diplomatist who took an active part in the events of the time, with an account of his personal experiences during that period by Ernest Mason Satow

“I do not doubt but rich men are sensible of this, and that they well know how much a greater happiness it is to want nothing necessary, than to abound in many superfluities; and to be rescued out of so much misery, than to abound with so much wealth: and I cannot think but the sense of every man’s interest, added to the authority of Christ’s commands, who, as He was infinitely wise, knew what was best, and was not less good in discovering it to us, would have drawn all the world over to the laws of the Utopians, if pride, that plague of human nature, that source of so much misery, did not hinder it; for this vice does not measure happiness so much by its own conveniences, as by the miseries of others; and would not be satisfied with being thought a goddess, if none were left that were miserable, over whom she might insult.
— from Utopia by More, Thomas, Saint

Two had bit the dust, one had fled, four had made good their footing inside our defences, while from the shelter of the woods seven or eight men, each evidently supplied with several muskets, kept up a hot though useless fire on the log-house.
— from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

The general tension would often be broken by squabbles or even miniature fights, especially at the moment of dispersing, and on the way home.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

It wonderfully clears the sight being drank, and revives the sight of elderly men: A cup of it in the morning is worth a pair of spectacles.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

He reserved to the prince and senate the sole cognizance of the extreme cases which might justify the destruction of an ancient edifice; imposed a fine of fifty pounds of gold (two thousand pounds sterling) on every magistrate who should presume to grant such illegal and scandalous license, and threatened to chastise the criminal obedience of their subordinate officers, by a severe whipping, and the amputation of both their hands.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

Farmers, upon such occasions, expect more profit from their corn by maintaining a few more labouring servants, than by selling it at a low price in the market.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

We may, I think, safely conclude that sediment must be accumulated in extremely thick, solid, or extensive masses, in order to withstand the incessant action of the waves, when first upraised and during subsequent oscillations of level.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

She's only eight months old, but, upon my word, I've never seen such intelligent eyes in a child of three." "Tell me, by the way," asked Yartsev: "which do you love most-- your husband or your baby?" Yulia shrugged her shoulders.
— from The Darling and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

As he had not at all anticipated, the softness of early March presently gave way to a severe cold wave, which not only put an end to the spring rains, but stopped the melting of the snow upon the mountains and dried up those torrents that had alone blocked the way down the mountain since the great snowdrift barriers had disappeared.
— from Camp Venture: A Story of the Virginia Mountains by George Cary Eggleston

And within the soul of every man is found the Christ Principle, striving ever to elevate and lift up the individual toward that realization of the Real Self—and this is what "redemption" and "salvation" really means.
— from Mystic Christianity; Or, The Inner Teachings of the Master by William Walker Atkinson

[The following to Mr. Gosse refers to the publication of that gentleman's life of Gray, in Mr. Morley's series of English Men of Letters, and of the writer's own, now classic, volume, A Child's Garden of Verses .]
— from Scribner's Magazine, Volume 26, July 1899 by Various

Although Paine arraigned the union of Church and State, his ideal Republic was religious; it was based on a conception of equality based on the divine son-ship of every man.
— from The Writings of Thomas Paine — Volume 4 (1794-1796): The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine

It is the spirit of the frontier which is described, and one can by it, perhaps, the better understand why men, and women, too, willingly braved every privation and danger that the westward progress of the star of empire might be the more certain and rapid.
— from A Captain in the Ranks: A Romance of Affairs by George Cary Eggleston

There are a thousand people belonging to the church at this station, each of whom, the missionaries see once every month.
— from The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 2 of 4 by American Anti-Slavery Society