If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life, to compare it with such things as we know, would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights' Entertainments.
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

He shows that all we know immediately when we 'perceive' the tree consists of ideas in his sense of the word, and he argues that there is not the slightest ground for supposing that there is anything real about the tree except what is perceived.
— from The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell

He could refer Sir Walter to all who knew him; and certainly, the pains he had been taking on this, the first opportunity of reconciliation, to be restored to the footing of a relation and heir-presumptive, was a strong proof of his opinions on the subject.
— from Persuasion by Jane Austen

I could not but feel that Art was keeping back something; but, as I took it that it was with a purpose, I said nothing.
— from Dracula by Bram Stoker

I shall meet them there, and who knows what future advantages may result from the interview?
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

This apartment was kitchen, parlor and dining room all in one.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

Like the priest the idealist has every grandiloquent concept in his hand (—and not only in his hand!), he wields them all with kindly contempt against the "understanding," the "senses," "honours," "decent living," "science"; he regards such things as beneath him, as detrimental and seductive forces, upon the face of which, "the Spirit" moves in pure absoluteness:—as if humility, chastity, poverty, in a word holiness, had not done incalculably more harm to life hitherto, than any sort of horror and vice....
— from The Twilight of the Idols; or, How to Philosophize with the Hammer. The Antichrist Complete Works, Volume Sixteen by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Spruce, who had earned his title of Captain on the plains of Newmarket, which had witnessed for many a year his successful exploits, had a weakness for the aristocracy, who knowing his graceful infirmity patronized him with condescending dexterity, acknowledged his existence in Pall Mall as well as at Tattersalls, and thus occasionally got a point more than the betting out of him.
— from Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield

I throw out these queries for intelligent readers to answer, who know, at once, how credulous we are, and how sceptical, how soft and how obstinate, how firm for others and how diffident about ourselves: meanwhile, it is certain that our friend William Dobbin, who was personally of so complying a disposition that if his parents had pressed him much, it is probable he would have stepped down into the kitchen and married the cook, and who, to further his own interests, would have found the most insuperable difficulty in walking across the street, found himself as busy and eager in the conduct of George Osborne's affairs, as the most selfish tactician could be in the pursuit of his own.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

"We haven't got our hands on them yet, of course, but we know they're in there, and we know it's only a question of time when we get hold of them."
— from The Call of the Beaver Patrol; Or, A Break in the Glacier by V. T. Sherman

Within a year or two after Paul left Thessalonica discipline was sorely needed in the church there, as we know from 1 and 2 Thessalonians.
— from Studies in the Epistle of James by A. T. Robertson

Would he choose again to lead that cursed life that afresh would kindle the flames of hell upon him, and that would bind him up under the heavy wrath of God?
— from Works of John Bunyan — Complete by John Bunyan

This, of course, is pure conjecture; yet it finds a certain warrant, both in the fact that the words of Pythagoras lead us to believe that the arteries were known and studied, and in the fact that Empedocles' own words reveal him also as a student of the vascular system.
— from A History of Science — Volume 1 by Edward Huntington Williams

That tragedy, as we know, was greatly enhanced by the singular blows of fate.
— from The Empress Frederick: a memoir by Anonymous

Nor indeed does one much want Papist Bishops, wherever they get their pallium; of them as well keep to windward!
— from History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 07 by Thomas Carlyle

These, as we know and as is confessed by the mouth of their chief adepts, are all surrounded by limits .
— from Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic by Benedetto Croce

he asked, turning about with keen alertness, and in a voice which seemed at once sweeter and more commanding than even the most imperious master-builder would naturally use to his underlings.
— from Joan of the Sword Hand by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett