Part of the explanation of why it looks the way it does is that it was built in a sunny part of the world.

At a much more down-to-earth level, the Alhambra looks very different from Versailles or Buckingham Palace and, though there are all sorts of complex cultural reasons for this, part of the explanation of why it looks the way it does is that it was built in a sunny part of the world.

R. Irwin, The Alhambra (2004), 127

In the context of fourteenth-century Spanish politics, it was quite something to be awarded the sobriquet 'Cruel'

Pedro the Cruel was so called because of his penchant for murder. In the context of fourteenth-century Spanish politics, it was quite something to be awarded the sobriquet 'Cruel'

R. Irwin, The Alhambra (2004), 77

A people which has hopelessly fallen in the scale of nations and deserved its humiliation

The true memorial of the Moors is seen in the desolate tracts of utter barrenness, where once the Moslem [sic] grew luxuriant vines and olives and yellow ears of corn; in a stupid, ignorant population where once wit and learning flourished; in the general stagnation and degradation of a people which has hopelessly fallen in the scale of nations and deserved its humiliation.

S. Lane-Poole, quoted in R. Irwin, The Alhambra (2004), 18

We are also asking him to witness our dying

The doctor is the familiar of death. When we call for a doctor, we are asking him to cure us and t relieve our suffering, but, if he cannot cure us, we are also asking him to witness our dying. The value of the witness is that he has seen so many others die. (This, rather than the prayers and last rites, was also the real value which the priest once had.)

J. Berger, A fortunate man (1967; 2016 edition), 70

If one didn't care for tradition and had no aesthetic sensibility

And really, if one didn't care for tradition and had no aesthetic sensibility, stock-car racing would have much to recommend it. It's possible to see how Nick prefers it to horse racing. There's something nice about people cheering, as they were tonight, for their friends and townsmen rather than for their own hope of gain (there's no betting at auto races).

A. Lurie, Real People (1969), Collected edition (1999), 440

An excuse for occupying the terrain and masking the vacuity of the content

For too long economists have sought to define themselves in terms of their supposedly scientific methods. In fact, those methods rely on an immoderate use of mathematical models, which are frequently no more than an excuse for occupying the terrain and masking the vacuity of the content.

T. Piketty, Capital in the 21st Century (2013), 974

Nearly one-sixth of each cohort will receive an inheritance larger than the amount the bottom half of the population earns through labour in a lifetime.

Inheritance did not come to an end: the distribution of inherited capital has changed, which is something else entirely. ... In the nineteenth century about 10% of a cohort inherited amounts greater than this [a lifetime income of those in the bottom half of income distribution]. This proportion fell to barely more than 2 percent for cohorts born in 1910-1920 and 4-5 percent for cohorts born n 1930-1950. According to my estimates, the proportion has already risen to about 12 percent of cohorts born in 1970-1980 and may well reach or exceed 15 percent for cohorts born in 2010-2020. In other words, nearly one-sixth of each cohort will receive an inheritance larger than the amount the bottom half of the population earns through labour in a lifetime.

T. Piketty, Capital in the 21st Century (2013), 420-1