Date: 1775
"Also those phenomena in nature which depend upon gravity, electricity, &c. are no less various and complex; and the more we know of nature, the more particular facts, and particular laws, we are able to reduce to simple and general laws: insomuch that now it does not appear impossible, but that,...
preview | full record— Priestley, Joseph (1733-1804)
Date: 1789
"Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure."
preview | full record— Bentham, Jeremy (1748-1832)
Date: 1789
"In words a man may pretend to abjure their empire [pain and pleasure]: but in reality he will remain subject to it all the while"
preview | full record— Bentham, Jeremy (1748-1832)
Date: February 1791
"It has apparently burst forth like a creation from a chaos, but it is no more than the consequence of a mental revolution priorily existing in France."
preview | full record— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)
Date: 1793
"Law may be supposed to have been constructed in the tranquil serenity of the soul, a suitable monitor to check the inflamed mind with which the recent memory of ills might induce us to proceed to the exercise of coercion"
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Date: 1793
"The present ruling passion of the human mind is the love of distinction. "
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Date: 1793
"The equalisation we are describing is farther indebted for its empire in the mind to the ideas with which it is attended of personal happiness."
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Date: 1793
"If mind be now in a great degree the ruler of the system, why should it be incapable of extending its empire?"
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Date: 1793
"the selfish are not governed solely by sensual gratification or the love of gain, but that the desire of eminence and distinction is in different degrees an universal passion"
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Date: 1793
"Reason is the only legislator, and her decrees are irrevocable and uniform."
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)