Date: 1776
"But the greatest happiness of the greatest number requires, that they should be not only imagined but proved: and this they shall now be, in so far as natural probability, aided by whatever support it may be thought to receive from the character of the narrator, can gain credence, for the indica...
preview | full record— Bentham, Jeremy (1748-1832)
Date: 1790, 1794, 1795, 1818, 1827
"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite."
preview | full record— Blake, William (1757-1827)
Date: 1793
"Again, the only means by which truth, however immutable in its own nature, can be communicated to the human mind is through the inlet of the senses. It is perhaps impossible that a man shut up in a cabinet can ever be wise"
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Date: 1794
"Every person of learning is finally his own teacher; the reason of which is, that principles, being of a distinct quality to circumstances, cannot be impressed upon the memory; their place of mental residence is the understanding, and they are never so lasting as when they begin by conception."
preview | full record— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)
Date: 1798
"I believe it may be admitted as a maxim, that no person of a well furnished mind, that has shaken off the implicit subjection of youth, and is not the zealous partizan of a sect, can bring himself to conform to the public and regular routine of sermons and prayers."
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)