It is as the system exercises its natural activities that passion, will, and meditation possess the mind.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

But the passion that is said to be produced by idleness in the hearts of young men, though it proceed leisurely, and with a measured progress, does evidently manifest, to those who have tried to oppose its power, the violence our judgment suffers in this alteration and conversion.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

We made a procession from the square to the house of the sick man with as much pomp as possible.
— from The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 33, 1519-1522 Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century by Antonio Pigafetta

One was a moonlight picture, in the background a lowly dwelling, and in front, partly shadowed by a tree, yet besprinkled with flakes of radiance, two youthful figures, male and female.
— from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne

And we can't get out of the suit on any terms, for we are made parties to it, and MUST BE parties to it, whether we like it or not.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

He waited a moment, pondering, with the door-knob in his hand, then started out; but turned back and said that I had once been interested in Corrigan Castle, and asked me if I would go with him to his quarters in the evening and take a hot Scotch and talk it over.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

Nagpatsi ku kay labad ákung úlu, I am wearing a medicinal plaster for my headache.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

I talked big to them at first, went back to the gate and took out the key, so that they were all my prisoners, threatened to lock them all into the warehouse, and go and fetch my Lord Mayor's officers for them.
— from A Journal of the Plague Year Written by a Citizen Who Continued All the While in London by Daniel Defoe

Nevertheless, the country which exerts itself so strenuously to promote its welfare is generally more wealthy and more prosperous than that which appears to be so contented with its lot; and when we compare them together, we can scarcely conceive how so many new wants are daily felt in the former, whilst so few seem to occur in the latter.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville

Uncultivated people are but ordinary observers of things, and not critical in distinguishing them; but, for that reason they admire more, and are more affected with what they see, and therefore express themselves in a warmer and more passionate manner.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

Brethren, leave these themes of profitless discussion alone; keep closely to the teachings of the revealed word, as made plain in the standard works of the Church and through the utterances of the living prophets; and let not a difference of views on abstruse matters of doctrine absorb your attention, lest thereby you become estranged from one another and separated from the Spirit of the Lord.
— from Gospel Doctrine: Selections from the Sermons and Writings of Joseph F. Smith by Joseph F. (Joseph Fielding) Smith

As Riego's voice ceased, Falkland gazed upon him with a mingled pity and admiration.
— from Falkland, Book 4. by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron

Several tombs are so lovely, you almost want to be dead, and have one as like as possible; but, though part of the cathedral is satisfyingly old (eleventh century), its new spire reminds one of a badly chosen hat, and the whole building somehow looks cold and dull, like a person with a magnificent profile who never says anything illuminating.
— from Set in Silver by A. M. (Alice Muriel) Williamson

Among the more active of these was a Mr. Pixley, who did not content himself in slandering us to the people of Jackson county, but also wrote to eastern papers telling horrible lies about us, with the evident intention of rousing a spirit of hatred against us.
— from History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Volume 1 Period 1. History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet by Smith, Joseph, Jr.

Three two-sous pieces terminated the affair, and two-thirds of the pound of bread were at once set apart as the portion of Medor, whom Gervais saw, with a melancholy pleasure, devour in a moment, a piece to which he had nothing to add.
— from Popular Tales by Madame (Elisabeth Charlotte Pauline) Guizot

And, to say the truth, I had rather not be too prosperous: it may be a superstition, but it seems to me that the bitter is very apt to come with the sweet, and bright sunshine casts a dark shadow; so I content myself with a moderate portion of sugar, and about as much sunshine as that of an English summer's day.
— from The Complete Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Appendix to Volume XII: Tales, Sketches, and other Papers by Nathaniel Hawthorne with a Biographical Sketch by George Parsons Lathrop Biographical Sketch of Nathaniel Hawthorne by George Parsons Lathrop

I saw Mr. Duff box his ears on the bridge; and you, papa, gave him over to that wretch, Angus Mac Pholp, to whip him—so at least Angus told me, after he had whipped him till he dropped senseless.
— from Sir Gibbie by George MacDonald

What a mental power This eye shoots forth!
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 20, June, 1859 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various

One always felt a really angry grown-up was a mere puppet.
— from Through the Postern Gate: A Romance in Seven Days by Florence L. (Florence Louisa) Barclay