Upon all occasions represent him to our imagination in his every shape; at the stumbling of a horse, at the falling of a tile, at the least prick with a pin, let us presently consider, and say to ourselves, “Well, and what if it had been death itself?”
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

From saying that the unorganized people cannot achieve Socialism, they passed to the implication that organization alone, without popular support, might achieve Socialism.
— from New Worlds For Old: A Plain Account of Modern Socialism by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

Finally the guide called out that it was foolishness for us to track the bear under present conditions, and suggested that we circle around the peak and catch their trail on the other side.
— from Trails and Tramps in Alaska and Newfoundland by William S. Thomas

She had seen the bones of man before; but under present conditions and surroundings the gleaming skeleton seemed a horrible prophecy of her own fate.
— from Warrior of the Dawn by Howard Browne

The sun drank up the waters out of Jefferson, and the almanac brought the day for the May term of the Court for Ashtabula county; came the Judge, the juries and unfortunate parties; came also some twenty lawyers, from the various points of North-eastern Ohio.
— from Bart Ridgeley A Story of Northern Ohio by A. G. (Albert Gallatin) Riddle

There was never any stand-still, the article of the season was always on hand; and from counter to counter the customer found herself caught and subjugated, at one buying the material for a gown; at another cotton and trimming, elsewhere a mantle, in fact everything necessary to complete her costume; while in addition there were all the unforeseen purchases, chases, a surrender to a longing for the useless and the pretty.
— from The Ladies' Paradise by Émile Zola