Date: 1759
"The way to be happy is to live according to nature, in obedience to that universal and unalterable law with which every heart is originally impressed; which is not written on it by precept, but engraven by destiny, not instilled by education, but infused at our nativity."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1762
"Your constant endeavours have been to inculcate the best principles into youthful minds, the only probable means of mending mankind; for the foundation of most of our virtues, or our vices, are laid in that season of life when we are most susceptible of impression, and when our minds, as on a sh...
preview | full record— Scott [née Robinson], Sarah (1720-1795)
Date: 1762
"He reverenced and respected her like a divinity, but hoped that prudence might enable him to conquer his passion, at the same time that it had not force enough to determine him to fly her presence, the only possible means of lessening the impression which every hour engraved more deeply on his h...
preview | full record— Scott [née Robinson], Sarah (1720-1795)
Date: Published serially, 1765-1770
"Saint Paul, bears Testimony, also, to the Impression of this Law of Rights on the Consciences and Hearts of all Men" in Romans, chapter 2: "Not the Hearers of the Law are just before God, but the Doers of the Law shall be justified. For, when the Gentiles, which have not the Law, do by Nature th...
preview | full record— Brooke, Henry (c. 1703-1783)
Date: 1773
"The figure of his father venerable in virtue, of his sister lovely in innocence, were imprinted on his mind; and the variety of public places of entertainment, to which sir Thomas conducted him, could not immediately efface the impression."
preview | full record— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)
Date: 1786
"Our minds are like blank paper, as a great philosopher has observed, and the first impressions they receive are generally the most permanent and powerful."
preview | full record— Anonymous
Date: 1787
"That frequently happens; and when once a false idea is impressed, it is very difficult to erase it, particularly at your age; as you are not yet capable of distinguishing the false from the true."
preview | full record— Louise Florence Pétronille Tardieu d'Ésclavelles Épinay (marquise d') (1726-1783)