That is why ideas which have been elaborated on the model of social things can aid us in thinking of another department of nature.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim

The law however forbids strangers from sharing in the sort which is not used for eating; and if any one, whether he be master or slave, takes of them in ignorance, let the slave be beaten, and the freeman dismissed with admonitions, and instructed to take of the other autumnal fruits which are unfit for making raisins and wine, or for laying by as dried figs.
— from Laws by Plato

how stupidly it’s all done, it makes one sick, though it’s not one’s business!
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

It was no doubt compassion for her misfortunes which induced the Marquis of Steyne to be so very kind to Madame de Saint-Amaranthe.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

the mantle of snow that swathed the balcony, the sun had appeared and was stitching seams of gold, with embroidered patches of dark shadow.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

Soon, however, the world begins to turn again upon its axis, and it seems the busiest epoch of the day, when an accident impedes the march of sublunary things.
— from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The militia was called out, but no one obeyed the call; and the only means of saving the poor wretches who were threatened by the frenzy of the mob was to throw them into prison as common malefactors.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville

Moreover, my mistress, like many others, seemed to think that slaves had no right to any family ties of their own; that they were created merely to wait upon the family of the mistress.
— from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. (Harriet Ann) Jacobs

The highway thus well-defined was seen bordered on the right and left with a series of towering columns, the outermost ranges of an innumerable multitude of similar tall shafts set at various distances from each other, and circumscribing the view in an irregular manner on both sides, all helping to bear up aloft a matted awning of deep-green, through which, here and there, glimpses of azure could be caught, looking bright and cheery.
— from Toronto of Old Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario by Henry Scadding

And it may be questioned whether Fielding ever put his unrivalled mastery of style to a nobler intention than in the closing words of this pamphlet, words designed to be read by the lowest of the people: "Great courage may, perhaps, bear up a bad mind (for it is sometimes the property of such) against the most severe sentence which can be pronounced by the mouth of a human judge; but where is the fortitude which can look an offended Almighty in the face?
— from Henry Fielding: a Memoir Including Newly Discovered Letters and Records with Illustrations from Contemporary Prints by G. M. (Gertrude M.) Godden

On the morning of September twenty-ninth, the wind, though still blowing half a gale in our faces, had so much abated that we were able to launch our canoe and continue our journey.
— from The Long Labrador Trail by Dillon Wallace

Ten miles therefrom a people dwell who are at war with the men of Sidon; they are called Druses, and are pagans of a lawless character.
— from The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela by Benjamin, of Tudela, active 12th century

And yet I understand that the making of suggestions to those who are entering upon a perilous course brings no personal advantage to him who offers the advice, but as a general thing results in bringing blame upon him.
— from History of the Wars, Books III and IV The Vandalic War by Procopius

Methinks that every skull Is a most lifelike portrait of my Sen, Drawn by the hand of Death; each fleshless pate, Cursed with a ghastly grin to eyes unrubbed With love's magnetic ointment, seems to mine To smile an amiable smile like his Whose amiable smile I—I alone Am able to distinguish from his leer!
— from Black Beetles in Amber by Ambrose Bierce

However, when expenses have been made or steps taken in the carrying out of the object of the subscriptions, the general rule is that the subscriptions become binding contracts.
— from The Clergyman's Hand-book of Law: The Law of Church and Grave by Charles Martin Scanlan

The “assisted” way of doing this shot is to have a pair of bellows with nozzle curved at right angles, the side of the bellows towards you made of steel, the nozzle pointed at the candle wick, behind the candle, of course concealed so that when the background is struck the bellows blow the candle out.
— from The Modern Pistol and How to Shoot It by Walter Winans

The Miners' Council decided against the seven and a half per cent., but by the following resolution offered arbitration:— "That having heard the report of the Committee on their interview with the owners on the reduction now asked by the latter, this meeting is of opinion that the best means of settling the difficulty is, to refer it to open arbitration as heretofore."
— from A History of the Durham Miner's Association 1870-1904 by John Wilson