Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.
Henry David Thoreau • Walden (AmazonClassics Edition)
That immaculate manliness we feel within ourselves, so far within us, that it remains intact though all the outer character seem gone; bleeds with keenest anguish at the undraped spectacle of a valor-ruined man.
Herman Melville • Moby Dick: or, the White Whale
It had a touch of he knew not what sort of unhealthiness in it, so to speak; for, in his then ignorance, he could find no better term; it seemed to have in it a germ of somewhat which, if not quickly extirpated, might insidiously poison and embitter his whole life—that
Herman Melville • Pierre; or The Ambiguities
dudgeon;
Charles Dickens • David Copperfield
Perhaps there’ll be a disaster, Carleton had said; and Thomas felt again the blow of the hooded creature fleeing Bethesda with paint on its hands. But that had been no disaster, only something strange and soon forgotten in the order and quiet of his home – so Thomas, who had a gift for self-persuasion, placidly ate a radish.
Sarah Perry • Enlightenment
I had mistaken the heroism of friendship for the phrenzy of love.
Charles Brockden Brown • Wieland: or, the Transformation, an American Tale

"No," said he, without any abatement of his gravity, and looking stedfastly at his wife, "I did not mount the hill."—"Why