If such indirect expression could be discarded, it would not be missed; but while the mind, for want of a better vocabulary, is reduced to using these symbols, it pours into them a part of its own life and makes them beautiful.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

In this same year of 1740 Voltaire, in response to urgent invitations, paid his first visit to Frederick the Great in Germany.
— from Secret Societies And Subversive Movements by Nesta Helen Webster

In imitation of him, I attempted to make some sympathetic ink, and having for that purpose more than half filled a bottle with quicklime, orpiment, and water, the effervescence immediately became extremely violent; I ran to unstop the bottle, but had not time to effect it, for, during the attempt, it burst in my face like a bomb, and I swallowed so much of the orpiment and lime, that it nearly cost me my life.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Let us try to conform to them and follow them, and let us be persuaded that the less we let our feeble human minds roam, the better we shall please God, who rejects all knowledge that does not come from Him; and the less we seek to fathom what He has been pleased to conceal from us, the sooner will He vouchsafe its revelation to us through His divine Spirit.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

the wicked world was so toned down and gentled as to permit a little analytic thought, that beautiful illustration of the value of making haste slowly and of long, careful “deliberation” when acting on matters of vast import recurred to us—that Anti-trust Act.
— from Postal Riders and Raiders by W. H. Gantz

The voice teacher is primarily concerned with learning to play upon the vocal instrument rather than upon its mechanical construction, two things which some find difficulty in separating.
— from The Head Voice and Other Problems: Practical Talks on Singing by D. A. (David Alva) Clippinger

We also think it impossible to deny that up to the present time (1876) the movement, viewed in relation to ultimate ends, has been a complete failure.
— from The Pope, the Kings and the People A History of the Movement to Make the Pope Governor of the World by a Universal Reconstruction of Society from the Issue of the Syllabus to the Close of the Vatican Council by William Arthur

The voyage is rendered thoroughly uncomfortable because of a cargo of sheep.
— from A Baptist Abroad: Travels and Adventures of Europe and all Bible Lands by Walter Andrew Whittle

"Finally, the theory of the successive constitution of all commercial values implying the infinite progress of labor, wealth, and well-being, the object of society, from the economic point of view, is revealed to us:
— from System of Economical Contradictions; Or, The Philosophy of Misery by P.-J. (Pierre-Joseph) Proudhon

It was also roundish in shape, and therefore, from the vulgar, it received the unique nickname of “The Saucer.”
— from A Blundering Boy: A Humorous Story by Bruce Weston Munro

He had now, he felt, a very important responsibility thrown upon him, and he resolved to fulfil it to the utmost of his power.
— from Digby Heathcote: The Early Days of a Country Gentleman's Son and Heir by William Henry Giles Kingston

Fresh venison is rather tough until it has hung awhile; but the parts of the kill Chet and Dig ate that night were tender and succulent.
— from The Trail Boys of the Plains; Or, The Hunt for the Big Buffalo by Jay Winthrop Allen