But seeing that it is not yet time for strong remedies, and that the mind is manifestly so constituted that when it casts off true opinions it straightway puts on false, wherefrom arises a cloud of confusion that disturbs its true vision, I will now try and disperse these mists by mild and soothing application, that so the darkness of misleading passion may be scattered, and thou mayst come to discern the splendour of the true light.'
— from The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius

My ability of distressing you during my life would be a species of revenge to which I could hardly stoop under any circumstances.
— from Lady Susan by Jane Austen

And grant that when I come to the nether slopes of towering Mimas I may find honourable, god-fearing men.
— from Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica by Hesiod

‘If you don’t happen to have heard of the time, sir, I tell you that there was a time, when I carried every point in triumph against her mother’s whole family, although they had power and wealth on their side, by my will alone.’
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

"Late in the autumn, when the days were short, and the mist sprinkled cold drops on the berries and the leafless branches, I came back in fresh spirits, rushed through the air, swept the sky clear, and snapped off the dry twigs, which is certainly no great labor to do, yet it must be done.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

[ 285 ] We have seen how easily the war itself could have been averted by the Bacon Resolution of January, 1899, or some similar resolution frankly declaring the purpose of our government; how here was Senator Bacon at this end of the line pleading with his colleagues to be frank, and to make a declaration in keeping with “the high purpose” for which we had gone to war with Spain, instead of holding on to the Philippines on the idea that they might prove a second Klondike, while justifying such retention by arbitrarily assuming, without any knowledge whatever on the subject, that the Filipinos were incapable of self-government; how, there, at the other end of the line, at Manila, Aguinaldo’s Commissioners, familiar with our Constitution and the history and traditions of our government, were making, substantially, though in more diplomatic language, precisely the same plea, and imploring General Otis’s Commissioners to give them some assurance which would quiet the apprehensions of their people, and calm the fear that the original assurance, “We are going to lick the Spaniards and set you free,” was now about to be ignored because the islands might be profitable to the United States.
— from The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by James H. (James Henderson) Blount

They pointed to the stars and told me something about them which I could not understand, but I am convinced that they were somehow in touch with the stars, not only in thought, but by some living channel.
— from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Now the citizen told me that throughout a stretch of twelve miles along the reef, the reef is crossed at intervals by a straight black streak of a carbonaceous nature—a streak in the slate; a streak no thicker than a pencil—and that wherever it crosses the reef you will certainly find gold at the junction.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

To-day, I am a hundred miles from Warsaw; the weather is cold, but fine.
— from Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812 For the First Time Collected and Translated, with Notes Social, Historical, and Chronological, from Contemporary Sources by Emperor of the French Napoleon I

I can read any thing which I call a book .
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb

Then Champlain went to work in Canada, and John Smith in Virginia; Jesuits on the St. Lawrence, and Puritans in the New England states; and so the grain of mustard-seed, cast into American soil, grew into a great tree, which already, before three centuries have ended, bids fair to overshadow the earth.
— from A Historical Geography of the British Colonies, Vol. V Canada—Part I, Historical by Lucas, Charles Prestwood, Sir

I was so weary that when I crawled into one of the wagons on to the soft feather bed, it seemed to me as [62] if my legs would drop from my body, and my eyes were so heavy with slumber that it was only by the greatest exertion I could keep them open.
— from Philip of Texas: A Story of Sheep Raising in Texas by James Otis

Sleep, baby, sleep, The whippoorwill is calling, The stars are twinkling faintly, The dew is softly falling, Sleep, baby, sleep.
— from Threads of Grey and Gold by Myrtle Reed

Among these was a most attractive vixen, whose society kept the rest from leaving when the weather improved; consequently, the wood seemed full of foxes, none of which were disposed to leave it.
— from The Naturalist on the Thames by C. J. (Charles John) Cornish

But when the weather is cloudy the noise and turmoil are kept up for nearly the entire day.
— from Nests and Eggs of Birds of the United States Illustrated by Thomas G. (Thomas George) Gentry

My story lasted for two whole hours; and as it was noticed that Marcoline's eyes became wet with tears when I came to speak of my great danger.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 22: to London by Giacomo Casanova

Since the weather is changed, said he, let us proceed to Constantinople; great desire have I to see that great Emperor, that if it please God that I should ever return there where my heart desires, I may have strange things to relate, such as can only be seen in such places.
— from Amadis of Gaul, Vol. 3 of 4. by Vasco de Lobeira

Whether Doria really desired a pitched battle can never be known; that which is certain is that, during the whole time the fleets were in touch, all his dispositions make it appear there was nothing of which he was so much afraid.
— from Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean: The grand period of the Moslem corsairs by E. Hamilton (Edward Hamilton) Currey