By these penances he attained such spiritual power that he was enabled to usurp the Brahman’s office.
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 or the Central and Western Rajput States of India by James Tod

We will examine the usual plan of a monastery, the main buildings of which clustered round the cloister-court.
— from English Villages by P. H. (Peter Hampson) Ditchfield

From the foregoing facts, namely, the presence of temperate forms on the highlands across the whole of equatorial Africa, and along the Peninsula of India, to Ceylon and the Malay Archipelago, and in a less well-marked manner across the wide expanse of tropical South America, it appears almost certain that at some former period, no doubt during the most severe part of a Glacial period, the lowlands of these great continents were everywhere tenanted under the equator by a considerable number of temperate forms.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

I only doubt whether he will ever take us anywhere else.
— from Emma by Jane Austen

One can talk about fear for a long time without even touching upon nervousness.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud

This indicates that our vision is slower than that of the photographic apparatus, and hence, that we do not apprehend the smallest particular conditions, but that we each time unconsciously compound a group of the smallest conditions and construct in that way the so-called instantaneous impressions.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross

n. In the Buddhist religion, a state of pleasurable annihilation awarded to the wise, particularly to those wise enough to understand it.
— from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

On the way Pierre remembered that Anatole Kurágin was expecting the usual set for cards that evening, after which there was generally a drinking bout, finishing with visits of a kind Pierre was very fond of.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Arma amens capio; nec sat rationis in armis —I 5 madly take to arms; but have not wit enough to use them to any purpose.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

It was easy to understand, now, why the fabric of family life held so safely sometimes.
— from God's Green Country: A Novel of Canadian Rural Life by Ethel M. Chapman

The narrow stripes 93 of ribbon and chain pattern found in many of them also are very common in Caucasian rugs; so that it seems not improbable that these Holbein rugs were made within the boundaries of that greater Armenia which, embracing the upper Mesopotamian valley, extended over the eastern part of Asia Minor and the southern part of modern Caucasia. Plate 21.
— from Oriental Rugs, Antique and Modern by W. A. (Walter Augustus) Hawley

Of course, party spirit and the greed of office had a place among the impelling motives at Washington, but these considerations would not have availed had not the opinion been deep-seated that a Democratic victory won by the votes of the solid South and a minority of the North would endanger the Union.
— from The Life of Lyman Trumbull by Horace White

" The major sat bolt upright, rubbed his eyes, stretched himself, but quietly that Mark might not know he had waked him, pulled down his waistcoat, gave a hem as if deeply pondering, instead of trying hard to gather wits enough to understand the question put to him, and when he thought his voice sufficiently a waking one not to betray him, answered: "Well, Mark, I don't think we can beat this same—can we?
— from Weighed and Wanting by George MacDonald

"My son," he said, "my heart thrills with joy, when I contemplate how in this century a beauty, a freedom, and a brotherly love unfold themselves which existed to us only in the germ.
— from Villa Eden: The Country-House on the Rhine by Berthold Auerbach

Incubation obviously then associated itself with creation, and this fact will explain the universality with which the egg was received as a symbol in the earlier systems of cosmogony.
— from The Evil Eye, Thanatology, and Other Essays by Roswell Park

I tried to work out the plot in a dozen ways, endeavoring to understand how the thieves could secure themselves if I were allowed to live.
— from The Master Detective: Being Some Further Investigations of Christopher Quarles by Percy James Brebner

It is therefore that we elevate the upper end of the rod, six or eight feet above the highest part of the building, tapering it gradually to a fine sharp point, which is gilt, to prevent its rusting.
— from Endless Amusement A Collection of Nearly 400 Entertaining Experiments in Various Branches of Science; Including Acoustics, Electricity, Magnetism, Arithmetic, Hydraulics, Mechanics, Chemistry, Hydrostatics, Optics; Wonders of the Air-Pump; All the Popular Tricks and Changes of the Cards, &c., &c. to Which is Added, a Complete System of Pyrotechny; Or, the Art of Making Fire-works. by Unknown