But I think this appearance is due to human handiwork, for it seems to pass all belief that the hard and uncleavable rock should so imitate the softness of wax, as, merely by the contact of a man leaning on it, to present the appearance of a man having sat there, and assume concavity for ever.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

In this method of life, it was once his fate to approach a clear fountain, where he laid himself down to rest, in the noonday heat; when, beholding his image in the water, he fell into such a rapture and admiration of himself, that he could by no means be got away, but remained continually fixed and gazing, till at length he was turned into a flower, of his own name, which appears early in the spring, and is consecrated to the infernal deities, Pluto, Proserpine, and the Furies.
— from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon

It flows from the fact that in each exists a bias toward affection, a craving for the pleasure of being loved.
— from Sister Carrie: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser

It follows that we regard reason, in spite of the empirical conditions of the act, as completely free, and therefore, therefore, as in the present case, culpable.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

[81] Victor Hugo had already submitted himself three times as a candidate for the Académie and was elected the fourth time, that is to say, the day Juliette wrote this letter.
— from Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo Edited with a Biography of Juliette Drouet by Louis Guimbaud

But after this Doctrine, "that the Church now Militant, is the Kingdome of God spoken of in the Old and New Testament," was received in the World; the ambition, and canvasing for the Offices that belong thereunto, and especially for that great Office of being Christs Lieutenant, and the Pompe of them that obtained therein the principal Publique Charges, became by degrees so evident, that they lost the inward Reverence due to the Pastorall Function: in so much as the Wisest men, of them that had any power in the Civill State, needed nothing but the authority of their Princes, to deny them any further Obedience.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

Maciek stood by the door with his switch raised on high, and, squeezing close to the wall, lay in wait for them as a cat for rats; then he struck a fearful blow.
— from Pan Tadeusz Or, the Last Foray in Lithuania; a Story of Life Among Polish Gentlefolk in the Years 1811 and 1812 by Adam Mickiewicz

CLEINIAS: I do not see that any argument can fairly be raised by either of us against what you are now saying.
— from Laws by Plato

Therefore I love them and am concerned for them, but I'm not proud of them ... and so on.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

I believe, though, Lord Scilly twigs about Ariadne caring for him, that Lady Scilly doesn’t, or else she would not let him out so freely.
— from The Celebrity at Home by Violet Hunt

Cromwell’s rugged countenance expressed the utmost surprise, as he awkwardly strove to assume a courtesy foreign to his manner, and exchange his first ungracious greeting for something of a more cordial welcome.
— from Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXVI, No. 3, March 1850 by Various

For after Donatello he did most towards adding a certain finish and refinement to the art of sculpture, seeking to give such depth and roundness to his figures that they appear wholly round and finished, a quality which had not been seen to such perfection in sculpture up to that time; and since he first introduced it, in the ages after his and in our own it appears a marvel.
— from Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 03 (of 10) Filarete and Simone to Mantegna by Giorgio Vasari

The public, though I believe that in fact they will make no bodily exertion to acquire a constitutional freedom the absence of which they can only abstractedly feel, have no objection to attain that which they are assured will not injure their situation, provided it be by the risk and exertions of others.
— from Vivian Grey by Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield

CHAPTER XV ———“ So hating, I say, to make mysteries of nothing ”——I intrusted it with the post-boy, as soon as ever I got off the stones; he gave a crack with his whip to balance the compliment; and with the thill-horse trotting, and a sort of an up and a down of the other, we danced it along to Ailly au clochers , famed in days of yore for the finest chimes in the world; but we danced through it without music—the chimes being greatly out of order—(as in truth they were through all France ).
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

It is a perpetual delight to see Filmer put down his Daily Express and with the veins bulging out from his forehead say, "That accurate and careful financier who has so immeasurably raised the status of the Chancellorship of the Exchequer"; or to hear Chalmers remark, "Sad would it be if that most honey-tongued and softhearted of politicians, dear F. E. Smith , should have his life ended by a British bayonet."
— from Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, February 25, 1914 by Various

Although Fig. 9 represents with sufficient clearness all the essential parts of a locomotive, it should be observed that as actually constructed for use on the different lines of railway the machine is greatly modified in the arrangement and proportions of its parts.
— from Discoveries and Inventions of the Nineteenth Century by Robert Routledge

Taken aback , a colloquialism for being suddenly surprised or found out.
— from The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by W. H. (William Henry) Smyth

The widths and the thickness are as called for in the drawing, but the lengths are given a little long to allow for cutting.
— from The Library of Work and Play: Home Decoration by Charles Franklin Warner

It was easy for them to find good tutors for their children, because a pupil owed a debt of gratitude to his teacher and a child from a gentry family could later on nicely repay this debt; often, these teachers themselves were members of other gentry families.
— from A History of China by Wolfram Eberhard