It is to be noted also that in this third phase of man's experience of doom those who are not wise are most unwise indeed; and that where the age of experience has not produced this sort of clear maturity in the spirit, then it produces either despair or folly, or an exaggerated shirking of reality, which, being a falsehood, is wickeder than despair, and far more inhuman than mere foolishness.
— from On Something by Hilaire Belloc

It was so sharp that, if placed edge downwards on a block of wood, it would cut through it of itself.
— from Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 3 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

For one thing—in spite of the spies, and all the miserable stories of Armenian brides carried off by Kurds who go scot-free—a larger atmosphere seems to surround the immediate political environment, disclosing vistas into freedom.
— from Armenia, Travels and Studies (Volume 2 of 2) The Turkish Provinces by H. F. B. (Harry Finnis Blosse) Lynch