This coming to my perusal, I could not condemn ordinary men for lying, when I saw it in request amongst them that would be counted philosophical persons: yet could not but wonder at them, that, writing so manifest lies, they should not think to be taken with the manner; and this made me also ambitious to leave some monument of myself behind me, that I might not be the only man exempted from this liberty of lying: and because I had no matter of verity to employ my pen in (for nothing hath befallen me worth the writing), I turned my style to publish untruths, but with an honester mind than others have done: for this one thing I confidently pronounce for a truth, that I lie: and this, I hope, may be an excuse for all the rest, when I confess what I am faulty in: for I write of matters which I neither saw nor suffered, nor heard by report from others, which are in no being, nor possible ever to have a beginning.
— from Lucian's True History by of Samosata Lucian

I must still remark that even my prejudice in your favour does not blind me so much as to prevent my observing several faults.
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis

Whatever is unique in the situation, since dependent upon the peculiarities of the individual and the coincidence of circumstance, is not available for others; so that unless what is shared is abstracted and fixed by a suitable symbol, practically all the value of the experience may perish in its passing.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey

Every act that every man performs is to be traced back to an interest.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

I am truly right apt to believe that a man whose stomach is replete with various cheer, and in a manner surfeited with drinking, is hardly able to conceive aright of spiritual things; yet am not I of the opinion of those who, after long and pertinacious fastings, think by such means to enter more profoundly into the speculation of celestial mysteries.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

What might be the amount of the revenue which this system of taxation, extended to all the different provinces of the empire, might produce, it must, no doubt, be altogether impossible to ascertain with tolerable exactness.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

" Without stopping to explain my plans I retraced my way to the street and hastened to the barracks.
— from A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

By the elevens, my pleace is gone quite out of my head.
— from She Stoops to Conquer; Or, The Mistakes of a Night: A Comedy by Oliver Goldsmith

Of Christian Europe, they that have it are in effect only the Spaniards; but it is so plain, that every man profiteth in that he most intendeth, that it needeth not to be stood upon.
— from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon

At Delphi grew up representations of the slaying of a serpent by Apollo, and at Eleusis the "Eleusinian mysteries" portrayed in dramatic action the rape of Persephone and the wanderings of Demeter.
— from How Music Developed A Critical and Explanatory Account of the Growth of Modern Music by W. J. (William James) Henderson

“They are also of opinion that many people immensely exaggerate the value of alcohol as an article of diet, and they hold that every medical practitioner is bound to exert his utmost influence to inculcate habits of great moderation in the use of alcoholic liquids.”
— from Alcohol: A Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, How and Why What Medical Writers Say by Martha Meir Allen

We turn to the other grave, and there, as the stone is rolled away, and the rising sunshine of the Easter morning pours into it, we have a visible symbol of the life and immortality which Jesus Christ then brought to light by His Gospel.
— from Expositions of Holy Scripture Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and First Book of Samuel, Second Samuel, First Kings, and Second Kings chapters I to VII by Alexander Maclaren

In this position the eyes may point in several directions.
— from Physiology and histology of the Cubomedusæ including Dr. F.S. Conant's notes on the physiology by E. W. (Edward William) Berger

It has already been shown that certain judicial powers have been vested in the Rajah under the revenue concession, in regard to which the then British Consul at Bruni had occasion to write to the Rajah's agent at Labuan in July, 1900, that "the acting High Commissioner for Borneo believes in and acknowledges the right of Sarawak to exercise magisterial powers in Brooketon."
— from A History of Sarawak under Its Two White Rajahs 1839-1908 by C. A. Bampfylde

The young husband and his wife now landed, and began to examine more particularly into the state of the swamp, near their place of concealment.
— from Oak Openings by James Fenimore Cooper

not to know that ages of incessant labor by immortal creatures for this earth, must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed; not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunities misused.
— from The Exhibition Drama Comprising Drama, Comedy, and Farce, Together with Dramatic and Musical Entertainments by George M. (George Melville) Baker

In the Easter morning promenades in any avenue in Europe or America he would have been [25] a conventional figure, passed without notice.
— from Ravished Armenia The Story of Aurora Mardiganian, the Christian Girl Who Lived Through the Great Massacres by Aurora Mardiganian

This was serious, for a wedge driven in between the Chauny line and the Condren bridgehead, which was also under great pressure from the enemy, might possibly involve the loss of the Oise line, the retention of which was vital for us.
— from The War History of the 4th Battalion, the London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 1914-1919 by F. Clive Grimwade

This (admiring BARONESS) is a charming specimen—an antique, I should say—of the early Merovingian period, if I'm not mistaken; and here's another—a Scotch lady, I think (alluding to JULIA), and (alluding to LISA) a little one thrown in.
— from The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan by Arthur Sullivan