Vedavatí then proceeds: ‘In order that I may fulfil this desire of my father in respect of Náráyaṇa, I wed him with my heart.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

I remember, one night, sitting in his room, on the second floor of the Planters' House, with him and General Cullum, his chief of staff, talking of things generally, and the subject then was of the much-talked-of "advance," as soon as the season would permit.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

The very ardor and insight which gave power to the actress made that mimic life unsatisfactory to the woman, for hers was an earnest nature that took fast hold of whatever task she gave herself to do, and lived in it heartily while duty made it right, or novelty lent it charms.
— from Work: A Story of Experience by Louisa May Alcott

What ethics asks is not why a thing is called good, but whether it is good or not, whether it is right or not so to esteem it.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

To these are to be added those plodding virtuosos, that plunder the most inward recesses of nature for the pillage of a new invention, and rake over sea and land for the turning up some hitherto latent mystery; and are so continually tickled with the hopes of success, that they spare for no cost nor pains, but trudge on, and upon a defeat in one attempt, courageously tack about to another, and fall upon new experiments, never giving over till they have calcined their whole estate to ashes, and have not money enough left unmelted to purchase one crucible or limbeck.
— from In Praise of Folly Illustrated with Many Curious Cuts by Desiderius Erasmus

It is a problem of discovering the needs and capacities of collective human nature as we find it aggregated in racial or national groups on the surface of the globe, and of inventing the social machinery which will set available powers operating for the satisfaction of those needs.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

If any means is once found efficacious in War, it is repeated; one nation copies another, the thing becomes the fashion, and in this manner it comes into use, supported by experience, and takes its place in theory, which contents itself with appealing to experience in general in order to show its origin, but not as a verification of its truth.
— from On War — Volume 1 by Carl von Clausewitz

I ask myself whether I really ought not to consult one of my colleagues.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

There were married couples looking domesticated and bored with each other in the midst of their travels; there were small parties and large parties, and lone individuals dining solemnly or feasting boisterously, but all thinking, conversing, joking, or scowling as was their wont at home; and just as intelligently receptive of new impressions as their trunks upstairs.
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

Thus the first philosophical objection to the evidence of sense or to the opinion of external existence consists in this, that such an opinion, if rested on natural instinct, is contrary to reason, and if referred to reason, is contrary to natural instinct, and at the same time carries no rational evidence with it, to convince an impartial enquirer.
— from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume

Here it is constantly coming in, and it rests on no evidence.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 1 by François Rabelais

In theory, I care not a penny whether what I write is read or not; but I do care all the same.
— from Dust: A Novel by Julian Hawthorne

Its regulation ought not to be thought impossible.
— from Afloat on the Ohio An Historical Pilgrimage of a Thousand Miles in a Skiff, from Redstone to Cairo by Reuben Gold Thwaites

And as regards certain other most interesting results of neuralgia, which he could not avoid meeting with from time to time, e. g. , lachrymation, flux from the nostril, salivation, altered nutrition of the hair, he only speaks of these as occasional phenomena, and in no way classifies them, or explains their relation to the neuralgia itself.
— from Neuralgia and the Diseases that Resemble it by Francis Edmund Anstie

[73] to them that if they were to travel thirty miles a day it would require twenty-two years to reach the moon,—which is, in reality, our next-door neighbor,—and that to reach the sun, at the same rate of travel, would require more than eight thousand years, or the added lifetimes of almost three hundred generations.
— from The Reconstructed School by Francis B. (Francis Bail) Pearson

And between ecstasy at seeing her, and the intense relief of not finding my dreaded and now hated cousin there, I sat in a delirium of silent joy, stealing glances at her beauty, and listening with all my ears to the conversation, which turned upon the new-married couple.
— from Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet: An Autobiography by Charles Kingsley

Art, let there be no mistake on this point, be it romantic or naturalistic, is a perpetual concession; and the character of the artist is determined by the selection he makes amid the mass of conflicting issues that, all clamouring equally to be chosen, present themselves to his mind.
— from Piping Hot! (Pot-Bouille): A Realistic Novel by Émile Zola

"I really only need it to spell the French words [Pg 221] correctly," she said, "and a French dictionary will do as well."
— from Nobody's Girl (En Famille) by Hector Malot

Torn, and as though weary, the clouds hang about the mountain peaks that surround it, and the snow storm beats its exhausted wings against the mighty walls; it has spent its rage over night and its power is broken.
— from The Hour Will Come: A Tale of an Alpine Cloister. Volumes I and II by Wilhelmine von Hillern

"I remember one night last March—the eleventh, I think it was—when our people at Weybourne detected some mysterious search-lights far out at sea and raised an alarm on the 'phone all along the coast.
— from The Place of Dragons: A Mystery by William Le Queux