Date: 1777

"When a nation begins to emerge from a state of mental darkness, and to strike out the first rudiments of improvement, it chalks out a few strong but incorrect sketches, gives the rude out-lines of general art, and leaves the filling up to the leisure of happier days, and the refinement of more e...

— More, Hannah (1745-1833)

Date: 1777

"To conclude; Genius is a rare and precious gem, of which few know the worth; it is fitter for the cabinet of the connoisseur, than for the commerce of mankind."

— More, Hannah (1745-1833)

Date: 1777

"Good sense is a bank-bill, convenient for change, negotiable at all times, and current in all places."

— More, Hannah (1745-1833)

Date: 1777

"As it is the character of Genius to penetrate with a lynx's beam into unfathomable abysses and uncreated worlds, and to see what is not, so it is the property of good sense to distinguish perfectly, and judge accurately what really is."

— More, Hannah (1745-1833)

Date: 1777

"Good sense has not so piercing an eye, but it has as clear a sight: it does not penetrate so deeply, but as far as it does see, it discerns distinctly."

— More, Hannah (1745-1833)

Date: 1777

"Good sense is a judicious mechanic, who can produce beauty and convenience out of suitable means; but Genius (I speak with reverence of the immeasurable distance) bears some remote resemblance to the divine architect, who produced perfection of beauty without any visible materials, 'who spake, a...

— More, Hannah (1745-1833)

Date: 1779

"My mind's in equipoise, ready alike / To hold thee as my Lover, or my Foe!"

— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)

Date: 1779

"Come, come, Albina; / Though to a Lover you might wear this guise, / Of coy reserve, yet, to a Father's eye, / Your mind should now appear as legible / As in the days of prattling infancy."

— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)

Date: 1779

"Ambition! thou whose hallow'd flame can live / Only in minds refin'd from the gross elements / Of which the herd of human kind are made!"

— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)

Date: 1779

"If one spark of virtue / Yet hovers in his mind--Oh, grant me, Heaven! / To kindle it afresh, and be the flame immortal!"

— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)