They glory not of their own merits, seeing they ascribe no good unto themselves, but all unto Me, seeing that I of my infinite charity have given them all things.
— from The Imitation of Christ by à Kempis Thomas

I know not whether these ancestors of mine bethought themselves to repent, and ask pardon of Heaven for their cruelties; or whether they are now groaning under the heavy consequences of them in another state of being.
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

I know not whether these ancestors of mine bethought themselves to repent, and ask pardon of Heaven for their cruelties; or whether they are now groaning under the heavy consequences of them, in another state of being.
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fanciers select their horses, dogs, and pigeons, for breeding, when they are nearly grown up: they are indifferent whether the desired qualities and structures have been acquired earlier or later in life, if the full-grown animal possesses them.
— 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

Parsnips come in in October; but they are not good until the frost has touched them.
— from The English Housekeeper: Or, Manual of Domestic Management Containing advice on the conduct of household affairs and practical instructions concerning the store-room, the pantry, the larder, the kitchen, the cellar, the dairy; the whole being intended for the use of young ladies who undertake the superintendence of their own housekeeping by Anne Cobbett

"Perhaps if you—" he began eagerly, but he didn't say the rest, for Max and Hilliard came in just then, and Nannie got up to speak to them.
— from We Ten Or, The Story of the Roses by Barbara Yechton

If the progress of recent years can be maintained for thirty years more, the risk of trouble will have almost disappeared, for by that time a new generation, unused to war, will have grown up.
— from Impressions of South Africa by Bryce, James Bryce, Viscount

Lectures and short talks are now given under the auspices of these societies to small groups of young women in social settlements, and in other ways, with encouraging success; it is found to be an excellent method of reaching the young women of the working classes.
— from Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 Sex in Relation to Society by Havelock Ellis

"Music calls forth, and will be content with nothing less than the highest faculties of a man's nature; and where those are not given ungrudgingly, the result is a farce, sir--a wretched farce."
— from The Heart of a Mystery by T. W. (Thomas Wilkinson) Speight

But this gill-chamber lung is at best a makeshift, and when she comes to the more definitely terrestrial Amphibia Nature gives up the attempt to use the gill-chamber as a lung, and creates a new organ, the true vertebrate lung, specially adapted for breathing air (p. 475).
— from Form and Function: A Contribution to the History of Animal Morphology by E. S. (Edward Stuart) Russell

From this stage there are numerous gradations up to the great complex governments of the leading nations of to-day.
— from Problems in American Democracy by Thames Williamson

These render stiff soils more friable, and sandy soils less porous; they increase the power of all soils to hold moisture, and in their decay yield up a supply of plant food already prepared for the crops that are next grown upon the ground.
— from Clovers and How to Grow Them by Thomas Shaw

The difference is more imaginary than real, for the stems of the accented notes give us the binary metre.
— from Chopin : the Man and His Music by James Huneker

They are now giving up the Bible and the Sabbath.
— from My New Curate by Patrick Augustine Sheehan