As a matter of fact, the most beautiful creature often couples with the most debased, and the largest with the smallest.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

As a matter of fact, the genius of the species is at continual warfare with the guardian genius of individuals; it is its pursuer and enemy; it is always ready to relentlessly destroy personal happiness in order to carry out its ends; indeed, the welfare of whole nations has sometimes been sacrificed to its caprice.
— from Essays of Schopenhauer by Arthur Schopenhauer

Men of factious tempers, of local prejudices, or of sinister designs, may, by intrigue, by corruption, or by other means, first obtain the suffrages, and then betray the interests, of the people.
— from The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton

The road dividing the two, as far as our well-being and enjoyment of life are concerned, is downhill; the dreaminess of childhood, the joyousness of youth, the troubles of middle age, the infirmity and frequent misery of old age, the agonies of our last illness, and finally the struggle with death—do all these not make one feel that existence is nothing but a mistake, the consequences of which are becoming gradually more and more obvious?
— from Essays of Schopenhauer by Arthur Schopenhauer

The habit of expecting objections to every passage, set me upon starting more objections, for the glory of finding a solution of my own for them.
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb

(said Garrick, when he heard of this;) I shall have my old friend to bail out of the Round-house.'
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson Abridged and edited, with an introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood by James Boswell

I guess you won't get me out for that.”
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

However, as one who had in brief space been twice cruelly baffled by fortune, fearing a third misadventure, he bethought himself that it behoved him use great wariness and he would bring those things home; wherefore, wrapping them, as best he might, in some rags, he told the good woman that he had no more occasion for the chest, but that, an it pleased her, she should give him a bag and take the chest herself.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

As they replied by return of post, saying they would be with us in two or three days following their letter, you may be sure Miss Frankland and all of us made the most of what was to be the last of our mutual orgies for the time.
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous

When I came to Lisbon, I found out, by inquiry, and to my particular satisfaction, my old friend, the captain of the ship who first took me up at sea off the shore of Africa.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

I must further express my obligation for the very interesting history contained in your letter of the progress of opinion in the Netherlands, with respect to Evolution, the whole of which is quite new to me.
— from Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 by Charles Darwin

The way was once more open for the brave-hearted Manners to meet his betrothed again.
— from Heiress of Haddon by W. E. (William Elliott) Doubleday

He revels in the glory of the setting sun, the broad tranquil masses of foliage, the long evening shadows, and the effect of dark forms silhouetted against the radiant light.
— from The Venetian School of Painting by Evelyn March Phillipps

It was comparatively easy for him to inflame the minds of the ignorant masses with rage against the woman who was represented to them as the implacable enemy of their religion, and whose pernicious teachings had led so many others from the path of virtue and salvation.
— from Famous Assassinations of History from Philip of Macedon, 336 B. C., to Alexander of Servia, A. D. 1903 by Francis Johnson

As a matter of fact, the New Testament is infinitely worse than the Old.
— from The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 04 (of 12) Dresden Edition—Lectures by Robert Green Ingersoll

Junglefowl, the ancestors of all our domestic breeds of poultry, are to be found throughout the islands but only in a few places do they offer much opportunity for the sportsman who likes to kill his birds on the wing.
— from The Philippines: Past and Present (Volume 2 of 2) by Dean C. (Dean Conant) Worcester

By the middle of February they reached the vicinity of Aumale in Picardy.
— from History of the United Netherlands, 1590-99 — Complete by John Lothrop Motley

As a matter of fact, there promptly followed four royal edicts as follows: June 9, entitling Cuba to elect deputies to the Cortes, one for each 40,000 people; June 9, dividing the island into the present six provinces; June 21, instituting a system of provincial and municipal government, followed on August 16 by the necessary electoral regulations.
— from Our War with Spain for Cuba's Freedom by Trumbull White

There is no other Method of fixing those Thoughts which arise and disappear in the Mind of Man, and transmitting them to the last Periods of Time; no other Method of giving a Permanency to our Ideas, and preserving the Knowledge of any particular Person, when his Body is mixed with the common Mass of Matter, and his Soul retired into the World of Spirits.
— from The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 With Translations and Index for the Series by Steele, Richard, Sir