At a bend in the road I experienced, suddenly, that special pleasure, which bore no resemblance to any other, when I caught sight of the twin steeples of Martinville, on which the setting sun was playing, while the movement of the carriage and the windings of the road seemed to keep them continually changing their position; and then of a third steeple, that of Vieuxvicq, which, although separated from them by a hill and a valley, and rising from rather higher ground in the distance, appeared none the less to be standing by their side.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

For to read in every spare moment, and to read constantly, is more paralysing to the mind than constant manual work, which, at any rate, allows one to follow one's own thoughts.
— from Essays of Schopenhauer by Arthur Schopenhauer

And as the Parthian juice, though hurtful to no one else nor injurious to those who touch it or carry it about, yet if it be communicated to a wounded man straightway kills him through his previous susceptibility to receive its essence, so he who will be upset in soul by Fortune must have some secret internal ulcer or sore to make external things so piteous and lamentable.
— from Plutarch's Morals by Plutarch

Thy very hump becomes thee too, O thou whose face is fair to view, For there reside in endless store Plots, wizard wiles, and warrior lore.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

The separate motives, or rather moods of mind, which produced the preceding reflections and anecdotes have been laid open to the reader in each separate instance.
— from Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

As usual, traitors were at hand ready to sell their country for the sake of the triumph of their party; and Callicrates, B.C. 179. sent to Rome to plead the cause of the league, 133 employed the opportunity to support himself and his party by advising the Senate to give support to “the Romanisers” in every state.
— from The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Polybius

We dislike to use the right names of things and choose rather to suggest, to remain in embarrassed silence, or to blush.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross

Had Ireland been excluded from the reckoning,—as she might well be, seeing that there are only three there of the aggregate length of 2,980 yards (exactly 100 yards less than a mile and three-quarters) on the 1,948 miles of railway that are now open for traffic in that part of the United Kingdom,—the proportion of tunnel to railway in England, Scotland, and Wales would have been one mile of the former for every 132½ of the latter.
— from Rambles on Railways by Roney, Cusack P., Sir

They were well dressed, adorned with stars and ribands, and, as a class of men, the "biggest in the round" I ever saw.
— from Incidents of Travel in Greece, Turkey, Russia, and Poland, Vol. 2 (of 2) by John L. Stephens

Pass along the avenues of any city or town, in which you live—behold the trading shops—the manufacturies—see the operations of the various machinery—see the stage-coaches coming in, bringing the mails of intelligence—look at the railroads interlining every section, bearing upon them their mighty trains, flying with the velocity of the swallow, ushering in the hundreds of industrious, enterprising travellers.
— from The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States by Martin Robison Delany

"Liable to run into error!" said Fellowes.
— from The Eclipse of Faith; Or, A Visit to a Religious Sceptic by Henry Rogers

( Crosses to R. I. E. ) Simon.
— from Comrades: A Drama in Three Acts by George M. (George Melville) Baker