Such, for example, amongst others, is honest Froissart, who has proceeded in his undertaking with so frank a plainness that, having committed an error, he is not ashamed to confess and correct it in the place where the finger has been laid, and who represents to us even the variety of rumours that were then spread abroad, and the different reports that were made to him; ‘tis the naked and inform matter of history, and of which every one may make his profit, according to his understanding.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Shortly after this the moon came up, and notwithstanding every variety of roar that echoed over the water to us from the lions on the banks, we began, thinking ourselves perfectly secure, to gradually doze off.
— from She by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

In an official account of the blacks of Australia published by the government of Victoria, one reads that the aboriginal not only notices the faint marks left on the bark of a tree by the claws of a climbing opossum, but knows in some way or other whether the marks were made to-day or yesterday.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

Traditions the most picturesque, episodes the most pathetic, local associations teeming with the thoughts of gods and great men, may crowd in one mighty vision, or reveal themselves in more substantial forms to the mind of the poet; but, except the power to create a grand whole, to which these shall be but as details and embellishments, be present, we shall have nought but a scrap-book, a parterre filled with flowers and weeds strangling each other in their wild redundancy; we shall have a cento of rags and tatters, which will require little acuteness to detect.
— from The Odyssey by Homer

The most drastic measure, however, taken and effectuated by the supreme power, to combat the preponderance of the feelings of spite and vindictiveness—it takes this measure as soon as it is at all strong enough to do so—is the foundation of law , the imperative declaration of what in its eyes is to be regarded as just and lawful, and what unjust and unlawful: and while, after the foundation of law, the supreme power treats the aggressive and arbitrary acts of individuals, or of whole groups, as a violation of law, and a revolt against itself, it distracts the feelings of its subjects from the immediate injury inflicted by such a violation, and thus eventually attains the very opposite result to that always desired by revenge, which sees and recognises nothing but the standpoint of the injured party.
— from The Genealogy of Morals The Complete Works, Volume Thirteen, edited by Dr. Oscar Levy. by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

With grief renew'd the weeping fair descends; Their sovereign's step a virgin train attends: A veil, of richest texture wrought, she wears, And silent to the joyous hall repairs.
— from The Odyssey by Homer

The understanding may be a faculty for the production of unity of phenomena by virtue of rules; the reason is a faculty for the production of unity of rules (of the understanding) under principles.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

When he came again to me, I entered into a long discourse with him upon the subject of the redemption of man by the Saviour of the world, and of the doctrine of the gospel preached from Heaven, viz. of repentance towards God, and faith in our blessed Lord Jesus.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

How it came to pass that people were so violently bent upon getting into this assembly, which I allowed to be a great trouble and expense, often to the ruin of their families, without any salary or pension: because this appeared such an exalted strain of virtue and public spirit, that his majesty seemed to doubt it might possibly not be always sincere; and he desired to know whether such zealous gentlemen could have any views of refunding themselves for the charges and trouble they were at, by sacrificing the public good to the designs of a weak and vicious prince, in conjunction with a corrupted ministry?
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Regions of the World by Jonathan Swift

One day within that holy wood By saint Sutíkshṇa Ráma stood, And thus the prince with reverence meek To that high sage began to speak: “In the wide woodlands that extend Around us, lord most reverend, As frequent voice of rumour tells, Agastya, saintliest hermit, dwells.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

The spores of ferns (7) develop in very much the same way as pollen-grains; and they also very often retain traces of the shape which they assumed as members of a tetrahedral figure.
— from On Growth and Form by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson

See,” he said, pointing backward to their track, “see what a lovely effect of tender blue and yellow through yonder opening—” “D’you mean Gillie?” asked Lewis, with a quiet grin, as that reckless youth suddenly presented his blue coat and yellow buttons in the very opening referred to.
— from Rivers of Ice by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

And when the plainer majority finally triumphed with the induction of Mr. Jefferson, some fifteen years since, was it not truly a victory of republican trousers--a popular decree that henceforth all men should be equal as to legs?
— from In the Valley by Harold Frederic

And within a nook A-down whose covertness a noisy brook Did talk of peace, I learnt of thee my fate; The word of pity that was kin to hate,— The voice of reason that was reason's foe Because it spurn'd the love that was so great!
— from A Lover's Litanies by Eric Mackay

Some go so far as to believe that this evil of war, so ubiquitous, so ancient and apparently so inalienable from man's position upon earth, is already doomed; that not the private associations only, but the prevailing voice of races the most highly civilized, may be looked on as tending to confederation against it; that sentence of extermination has virtually gone forth, and that all which remains is gradually to execute that sentence.
— from Narrative and Miscellaneous Papers — Volume 2 by Thomas De Quincey

And the refugees, who at this date claimed the hospitality of the States, were of a sort to make the Dutch in love with their own unfashionable virtue of religious tolerance.
— from Jewish Portraits by Magnus, Katie, Lady

She still kept her face away; and there was the veil of recent tears over her sweet voice as she spoke tenderly: “Thank you, dear.
— from The Mystery of the Sea by Bram Stoker

Lords of this towne, or whatsoeuer stile Belongs vnto your name, vouchsafe of ruth To tell vs who inhabits this faire towne, What kind of people, and who gouernes them: For we are strangers driuen on this shore, And scarcely know within what Clime we are.
— from The Tragedy of Dido Queene of Carthage by Christopher Marlowe