Date: 1763
"The mind of man is, at first, a kind of tabula rasa; or like a piece of blank paper, and bears no original inscriptions, when we come into the world; we owe all the characters afterwards drawn upon it, to the impressions made upon our senses; to education, custom, and the like."
preview | full record— Fielding, John, Sir (1721-1780)
Date: 1763 (repr. 1776); 1794 (repr. 1799)
"Memory in a great measure depends upon the body, and is often much injured by a disease, and afterwards recovered with recovering strength, which on the Cartesian hypothesis is accounted for, by supposing that those parts of the brain, on which these characters are written, are by such disorders...
preview | full record— Doddridge, Philip (1702-1751)
Date: 1763 (repr. 1776); 1794 (repr. 1799)
"Children soon forget, as they soon learn: old people learn with difficulty, and remember best what they learnt when young. That is, say the Cartesians because the brain growing by degrees more dry retains old characters, but does not easily admit new."
preview | full record— Doddridge, Philip (1702-1751)
Date: 1765
"Do thou O Tablet, either both, or nothing; either let thy words and sense go together, or be thy bosom a rasa tabula."
preview | full record— Warburton, William (1698-1779)
Date: 1766
"Cecil is infinitely desirous that King James, as he favours him, should write the letter of satisfaction concerning 40 by the very next dispatch; for it should seem to me, by secret intimation from Cecil this afternoon, that the party is a little tickle, and like rasa tabula, that is, rea...
preview | full record— Howard, Howard, Earl of Northampton (1540-1614)
Date: 1769
"Vain therefore, and entirely to be rejected, is that Principle published to the World, by a celebrated Philosopher of the last Century, namely, that the Soul in its first created State, has nothing in it, but is a mere Rasa Tabula, or blank Paper."
preview | full record— Law, William (1686-1761)
Date: 1770
"That the mind of man, previous to the information of the senses, is a tabula rasa, a blank, without ideas, without knowledge, is a doctrine too well supported by this great master of reason to suffer a shock."
preview | full record— Baker, William (1742-1785)
Date: 1771
"As the Wax would not be adequate to its business of Signature, had it not a Power to retain, as well as to receive; the same holds of the SOUL, with respect to Sense and Imagination."
preview | full record— Harris, James (1709-1780)
Date: 1771
"For were that mind, what some suppose, a mere tabula rasa upon its first coming into the world, a pure and perfect blank, without one single impression; who can deny that it would be right, that it would be humane and wise, to make, in the earliest moments, those impressions upon it, whic...
preview | full record— Dodd, William (1729-1777)
Date: December 10, 1774; 1775
"Invention is one of the great marks of genius; but if we consult experience, we shall find, that it is by being conversant with the inventions of others, that we learn to invent; as by reading the thoughts of others we learn to think."
preview | full record— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)