"At first sight" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... applies to the popular theory of instincts as being inherited habits; though Darwin gave very little weight to this, but derived almost all instincts from spontaneous useful variations which, like other spontaneous variations, are of course inherited. At first sight it appears as if the acquired habits of our trained dogs—pointers, retrievers, etc.—are certainly inherited; but this need not be the case, because there must be some structural or psychical peculiarities, such as modifications ...
— Darwinism (1889) • Alfred Russel Wallace
... weight your argument, my Laelius, bears, But not so much as at first sight appears. This answer by Themistocles was made, (When a Seriphian thus did him upbraid, 'You those great honours to your country owe, Not to yourself')-'Had I at Seripho[3] 70 Been born, such honour I had never seen, Nor you, if an Athenian you had been;' So age, clothed in indecent ...
— Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham • Edmund Waller; John Denham
... animals with which the globe is peopled, there is none towards whom nature seems, at first sight, to have exercised more cruelty than towards man, in the numberless wants and necessities with which she has loaded him, and in the slender means which she affords to the relieving of these necessities. In other creatures these ...
— The Children: Some Educational Problems • Alexander Darroch
... punctuality, and despatch, are the principal qualities required for the efficient conduct of business of any sort. These, at first sight, may appear to be small matters; and yet they are of essential importance to human happiness, well-being, and usefulness. They are little things, it is true; but human life is made up of comparative trifles. It is ...
— Self Help • Samuel Smiles
... nature of the added circumstances that it springs, for those circumstances necessarily involve inquiries of the most difficult nature. Nor can I in the least pretend to have satisfied myself concerning them. In the first place comes the mode of the cure, which seems at first sight (dissociated, observe, from the will of the healer) to partake of the nature of magic—an influence without a sufficient origin. Not for a moment would I therefore yield to an inclination to reject the testimony. I have no right to do so, for it deals with ...
— Miracles of Our Lord • George MacDonald
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