Not without interest, and certainly not without intelligence—for he boasted of having been educated at the most enlightened schools in Switzerland—he listened to my enthusiastic narration of the art ideal which I had in my mind, and which was destined to exercise a great and decided influence upon the human race.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

They may even subsist, in some degree, under a general war.
— from An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume

They'd been paying less and less attention to me, ever since I started spending my afternoons up on 125, and I was getting a reputation as a keener for all the time I spent with The Amazing Robotron.
— from Home Again, Home Again by Cory Doctorow

"You must remember that I have done nothing yet, and I have never failed of accomplishing more than my expectations; so I say again, we will make a good year's work of it yet, by the blessing of Heaven."
— from Extracts from the Diary and Correspondence of the Late Amos Lawrence; with a brief account of some incidents of his life by Amos Lawrence

At the same time the health of the body is a very interesting subject because of its effect upon the mind, even, so it seems sometimes, upon the very nature of a man.
— from The Dweller on the Threshold by Robert Hichens

"They flow not from his eyes," answered her aunt; "but deep, deep is the grief that, my Edwin says, is settled there."
— from The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter

As the oarsmen pulled slowly away we all turned and took a long look at the mighty vessel towering high above our midget boat, and I know it must have been the most extraordinary sight I shall ever be called upon to witness; I realize now how totally inadequate language is to convey to some other person who was not there any real impression of what we saw.
— from The Loss of the S. S. Titanic: Its Story and Its Lessons by Lawrence Beesley

The Bombay shop-keeper commences by asking an exorbitant price for his commodities; our Memon retorts by offering the least they could possibly fetch; and the battle between the maximum and the minimum eventually settles itself somewhere about the golden mean, whereupon the Memon hies him homewards as full of satisfaction as Thackeray's Jew.
— from By-Ways of Bombay by S. M. (Stephen Meredyth) Edwardes

But, on the contrary, He was chiefly accepted when He spoke words implying more humiliation—for example, “I can of my own self do nothing, but as my Father taught me, even so I speak.”
— from Saint John Chrysostom, His Life and Times A sketch of the church and the empire in the fourth century by W. R. W. (William Richard Wood) Stephens

It was ridiculous, farcical, but the mischievous elf seemed in such positive earnest that twelve of her adorers entered smilingly into the spirit of the novel lottery.
— from The Senator's Favorite by Miller, Alex. McVeigh, Mrs.