Perhaps it will interest you to hear how the idea that birth is the source and prototype of the emotion of fear, happened to occur to me.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud

For the breadths of the Fringes seem'd to be in the progression of the Numbers 1, √(1/3), √(1/5), and their Intervals to be in the same progression with them; that is, the Fringes and their Intervals together to be in the continual progression of the Numbers 1, √(1/2), √(1/3), √(1/4), √(1/5), or thereabouts.
— from Opticks Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, and Colours of Light by Isaac Newton

Whilst to the multitude it was deemed advisable to preach polytheism, since only in this manner could the plural aspects of the Divine be apprehended by the multitude, the Initiates themselves believed in the existence of one Supreme Being, the Creator of the Universe, pervading and governing all things, Le Plongeon, whose object is to show an affinity between the sacred Mysteries of the Mayas and of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Greeks, asserts that "The idea of a sole and omnipotent Deity, who created all things, seems to have been the universal belief in early ages, amongst all the nations that had reached a high degree of civilization.
— from Secret Societies And Subversive Movements by Nesta Helen Webster

Sweet are the uses of adversity, / Which like 20 the toad, ugly and venomous, / Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; / And this our life, exempt from public haunt, / Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, / Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

They began the work which has since been carried to such glorious and beneficent issues by their successors in after ages; and if the beginning was poor and feeble, this is to be imputed to the inevitable difficulties which beset the path of knowledge rather than to the natural incapacity or wilful fraud of the men themselves.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

He was dismissed with a fresh horse; the insult was concealed from the Imperial troops; but in two successive battles they were more fatally instructed of the prowess of their adversaries.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

His exquisite belief in human nature had allowed him to get up and expect one of those idiots to bring it to their room. . . .
— from Bliss, and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

If this be the happiness which men should seek, then is the Buddhist in the highest degree consistent when he prays for the promised Nirvâna , or annihilation.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

As to myself, it is well known I don't approve of it, as I went with the interpreter to bring in those that were trading at that place.
— from Toronto of Old Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario by Henry Scadding

The best thing in the book is The Poet’s Vision of Death , which is quite above the average.
— from Reviews by Oscar Wilde

He would make a capital colonist, (no such temptations in the Bush,) if tied to a youth like you.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 65, No. 402, April, 1849 by Various

Nor were the [pg 28] customs of the tradesmen calculated to increase the public convenience, for they intruded their business into the already too limited space.
— from Neæra: A Tale of Ancient Rome by Graham, John W. (John William), active 1886-1887

First came an enormous multitude bearing aloft the keys of the conquered citadel, with the inscription, "The Bastille is taken."
— from Lectures on the French Revolution by Acton, John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, Baron

It has been criticized [28] as leaning too much to the side of the 'stratification' theory—that is, the belief in the existence of certain fixed religious conditions at different epochs of man's experience and the labelling of these by such names as 'animism,' 'totemism,' and the like.
— from An Introduction to Mythology by Lewis Spence

"Then you will go to Judith this evening at dusk, when Mr. Topsparkle is to be in the City, and you will give her a letter from me.
— from Mohawks: A Novel. Volume 2 of 3 by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

Certainly, the Infinite has not lost his power, and certainly the Infinite knows that thousands and hundreds of thousands, if the Bible is true, are now pouring over the precipice of unbelief into the gulf of hell.
— from The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Volume VIII. Interviews by Robert Green Ingersoll

They might yet retreat, it is true, for the Persian detachment had not yet descended to intercept them; but, if they remained where they were, they would, in a few hours, be hemmed in by their foes; and even if they could resist, for a little time, the double onset which would then be made upon them, their supplies would be cut off, and there would be nothing before them but immediate starvation.
— from Xerxes Makers of History by Jacob Abbott