Now as Architecture is an Art, and is the same as “a certain state of mind, conjoined with Reason, which is apt to Make,” and as there is no Art which is not such a state, nor any such state which is not an Art, Art, in its strict and proper sense, must be “a state of mind, conjoined with true Reason, apt to Make.”
— from The Ethics of Aristotle by Aristotle

We heard of a gentleman who fancied his laundry-maid, so he called his servants together and told them that he was to marry her and bring her home as the lady of his house, and he hoped they would all stay where they were; but if they felt that they could not look upon her as their mistress and his wife, they were free to go away.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

“Sit opposite to me, and let us talk.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

But this table, which is present to me, and the chimney, may and do exist separately.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

Before the mighty army went The lords for counsel eminent, Vaśishṭha, Vámadeva next, Jáváli, pure with prayer and text.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

I am one of those who have had no other merit in this struggle than to rally into one unique thought the courage of all; but let me here heartily render justice to those men amongst whom I pride myself with having for three years served the holy cause of human progress, to this Left, insulted, calumniated, unappreciated, and dauntless, which was always in the breach, and which did not repose for a single day, which recoiled none the more before the military conspiracy than before the parliamentary conspiracy, and which, entrusted by the people with the task of defending them, defended them even when abandoned by themselves; defended them in the tribune with speech, and in the street with the sword.
— from The History of a Crime The Testimony of an Eye-Witness by Victor Hugo

You have less restraint rather than more as you grow older.
— from Howards End by E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster

If promises be natural and intelligible, there must be some act of the mind attending these words, I promise; and on this act of the mind must the obligation depend.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

There followed much more to the same purpose, and in the end Mr. Batchel stultified himself by adding the necessary three marks, and passing the candidate.
— from The Stoneground Ghost Tales Compiled from the recollections of the reverend Roland Batchel, the vicar of the parish. by E. G. (Edmund Gill) Swain

The manners at the Regio were entirely different from those at Paris and were, as I discovered later, much like those in Germany.
— from My Recollections by Jules Massenet

Greek Itinerary Measures Though a length of 10 stadia is a meridian mile, neither the Egyptians nor the Greeks appear to have used this mile as an itinerary measure.
— from Men and Measures by Edward Nicholson

For another six weeks of inactivity the brave garrison endured all the sordid evils which had steadily grown from inconvenience to misfortune and from misfortune to misery.
— from The Great Boer War by Arthur Conan Doyle

It will hardly be contended that the conditions of this grant were fulfilled, and, if it be answered that the State did not demand the restoration of the forts or sites, the answer certainly fails after 1860, when the controversy arose, and the unfounded assertion was made that those forts and sites had been purchased with the money, and were therefore the property, of the United States.
— from The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Volume 1 by Jefferson Davis

And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be to morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria:
— from The Bible, King James version, Book 12: 2 Kings by Anonymous

He now ventured to make a few observations to the Squire, in palliation of the delinquent’s offence; but poor Slingsby spoke more from the heart than the head, and was evidently actuated merely by a general sympathy for every poor devil in trouble, and a liberal toleration for all kinds of vagabond existence.
— from Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists by Washington Irving

To my astonishment, instead of a man, I made out in the gloom of the underwood a huge bulk that I first took to be a baby elephant.
— from Life in an Indian Outpost by Gordon Casserly