Lay in bed most of the morning, then up and down to my chamber, among my new books, which is now a pleasant sight to me to see my whole study almost of one binding.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

They came from Birmingham, which is not a place to promise much, you know, Mr. Weston.
— from Emma by Jane Austen

the nose is generally low between the eyes.—the most remarkable trait in their physiognomy is the peculiar flatness and width of forehead which they artificially obtain by compressing the head between two boards while in a state of infancy and from which it never afterwards perfectly recovers.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

This mobility becomes the outward expression of a whole complex of economic wants, intellectual needs, and political ambitions.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

Not that it is complete or nearly so; it would require twice the space to include mention of all the fugitive bits of verse, essays, and miscellaneous writings in newspapers, and periodicals, dealing with the poetry and romance, history, chemistry, and physiological effects of coffee.
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

Then he began to fear it, then to dream of it, and of men whispering its name and pointing to it.
— from American Notes by Charles Dickens

But to the wizards themselves we must address a solemn preamble, begging them not to treat the world as if they were children, or compel the legislator to expose them, and to show men that the poisoner who is not a physician and the wizard who is not a prophet or diviner are equally ignorant of what they are doing.
— from Laws by Plato

They all proceed from the principle of morality, which is not a postulate but a law, by which reason determines the will directly, which will, because it is so determined as a pure will, requires these necessary conditions of obedience to its precept.
— from The Critique of Practical Reason by Immanuel Kant

Now this hypothetical liberty is universally allowed to belong to every one who is not a prisoner and in chains.
— from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume

Socrates, who is not a politician at all, tells us that he is the only real politician of his time.
— from Gorgias by Plato

As it was at our visit, the deep-black, yet transparent shadow that lay on some of the huge piles of mountain, and the soft light that lay on others, were indescribably noble and poetical, and the strangers exclaimed continually,—" Prächtig!
— from Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets, Vol. 2 (of 2) by William Howitt

Does it not ill become the wisdom of Cyrus the Persian to place over our heads this exacting old stranger, who is neither a Persian, Mede, nor even a Chaldean, but a Hebrew, brought to the country as a captive of war—and behold, surely he stands next to the king!
— from The Young Captives: A Story of Judah and Babylon by Erasmus W. Jones

"The last notable instance among our jeunesse doree is that of the Duke of Hamilton, who succeeded to a clear £70,000 a [Pg 75] year, some three years ago, and who is now a pensioner of his creditors in the ring, while the old palace of the Douglas is at the order and disposition of the celebrated Mr. Padwick.
— from Popular Amusements by J. T. (Jonathan Townley) Crane

In the twenty-two years that divide the return of the Liberals in 1892 from the "Grand Smash" (as Mr. Page has called it) of 1914, these features are intensified to an extent that renders the task of attempting even a superficial survey perilous and intractable to one who is neither a philosopher nor a trained historian.
— from Mr. Punch's History of Modern England, Vol. 4 (of 4).—1892-1914 by Charles L. (Charles Larcom) Graves

"Very well," I nodded, and pressed the attention signal of the non-commissioned officer in charge of the big forward ray projector.
— from Astounding Stories, April, 1931 by Various

And then we wash the inside well, till all the inside is perfectly clean, till there’s no bane within it, not a poison grain within it.
— from The Romany Rye by George Borrow

The poet of the veiled child at the heart of the world is naturally a poet of the mystery of tears and the mystery of sleep.
— from Suspended Judgments: Essays on Books and Sensations by John Cowper Powys

They are attached forever to the doctorate, and that with such a solemn obligation that a man who is not a priest may indeed read the Bible, but the Sentences a priest must read.
— from Works of Martin Luther, with Introductions and Notes (Volume II) by Martin Luther

The Chinese Fung Shuy, which in Corean becomes Pung-siu, is a system of superstition concerning the direction of the everyday things of life, which is nearly as powerful in Corea as in the parent country.
— from The War in the East: Japan, China, and Corea by Trumbull White

His language on these subjects is very clear, and bears no sign of being intended as figurative, though modern Christians prefer to regard it as such rather than to relinquish a religion the morals of which would, by other interpretation, be proved inadequate to the demands of the standards of higher civilization; the same method of exegesis applied to the sacred books of Confucianism or of Buddhism, from which it now appears probable that very many of the [Pg 526] Christian ideas were derived, would suit them ill.
— from A Review of the Systems of Ethics Founded on the Theory of Evolution by Cora May Williams