Date: 1744
"I do verily think there is not any other medicine whatsoever so effectual to restore a crazy constitution, and cheer a dreary mind, or so likely to subvert that gloomy empire of the spleen (Sect. 103) which tyrannizeth over the better sort (as they are called) of these free nations, and maketh t...
preview | full record— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)
Date: Saturday, August 25, 1750
In "the seats of innocence and tranquility ... where I should see reason exerting her sovereignty over life, without any interruption from envy, avarice, or ambition, and every day passing in such a manner as the severest wisdom should approve."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Tuesday, April 24, 1750
"Those sudden bursts of rage generally break out upon small occasions; for life, unhappy as it is, cannot supply great evils as frequently as the man of fire thinks it fit to be enraged; therefore the first reflection upon his violence must shew him that he is mean enough to be driven from his po...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Tuesday, May 15, 1750
"But, if any passion has so much usurped our understanding, as not to suffer us to enjoy advantages with the moderation prescribed by reason, it is not too late to apply this remedy, when we find ourselves sinking under sorrow, and inclined to pine for that which is irrecoverably vanished."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Saturday, September 15, 1750
"The first effect of this meditation is, that it furnishes a new employment for the mind, and engages the passions on remoter objects; as kings have sometimes freed themselves from a subject too haughty to be governed and too powerful to be crushed, by posting him in a distant province, till his ...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Tuesday, September 18, 1750
"In a short time the creditor grows impatient, the last acre is sold, the passions and appetites still continue their tyranny, with incessant calls for their usual gratifications, and the remainder of life passes away in vain repentance, or impotent desire."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Tuesday, April 10, 1750
"The great art therefore of piety, and the end for which all the rites of religion seem to be instituted, is the perpetual renovation of the motives to virtue, by a voluntary employment of our mind in the contemplation of its excellence, its importance, and its necessity, which, in proportion as ...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Saturday, November 17, 1750
"[F]or most minds are the slaves of external circumstances, and conform to any hand that undertakes to mould them, roll down any torrent of custom in which they happen to be caught, or bend to any importunity that bears hard against them."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Tuesday, November 27, 1750
"Being accustomed to give the future full power over my mind, and to start away from the scene before me to some expected enjoyment, I deliver up myself to the tyranny of every desire which fancy suggests, and long for a thousand things which I am unable to procure."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Saturday, April 14, 1750
"He therefore that would govern his actions by the laws of virtue, must regulate his thoughts by those of reason; he must keep guilt from the recesses of his heart, and remember that the pleasures of fancy, and the emotions of desire, are more dangerous as they are more hidden, since they escape ...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)