Date: w. 1821, 1840
"The cultivation of those sciences which have enlarged the limits of the empire of man over the external world, has, for want of the poetical faculty, proportionally circumscribed those of the internal world; and man, having enslaved the elements, remains himself a slave."
preview | full record— Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)
Date: w. 1821, 1840
"But even whilst they deny and abjure, they are yet compelled to serve, that power which is seated on the throne of their own soul."
preview | full record— Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)
Date: 1848
"It is often obscure, often half-told; for he who wrote it, in his clear seeing of the things beneath, may have been impatient of detailed interpretations; for if we choose to dwell upon it and trace it, it will lead us always securely back to that metropolis of the soul’s dominion from which we ...
preview | full record— Ruskin, John (1819-1900)
Date: April, 1871
"In cases like the Caliph Omar's, it governs all other desires, absorbs the whole nature, and rules the whole life."
preview | full record— Bagehot, William (1826-1877)
Date: April, 1871
"When the inability to prevent the recurrence of the idea is very great, so that the reason is powerless on the mind, the consequent "conviction" is an eager, irritable, and ungovernable passion."
preview | full record— Bagehot, William (1826-1877)
Date: 1900
"One of these two must ever be, viz., that a man has his fancies in right discipline, turning, leading, and commanding them; or they him. Either they must deal with him, take him up short (as they say), teach him manners, and make him know to whom he belongs; or, this will be his part to teach th...
preview | full record— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)
Date: 1900
"Jealous for thy authority in thy mansion-house and outward family, but not in the least for thy authority within, in thy chiefest mansion, thy principal economy? Are the servants here to talk high and in what tone they please? Must theirs be the last word, their dictates the rules of action? O s...
preview | full record— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)
Date: Date Unknown
"The command of one's self is the greatest empire a man can aspire unto, and consequently, to be subject to our own passions is the most grievous slavery."
preview | full record— Milton, John (1608-1674)
Date: Date Unknown
To "be subject to our own passions is the most grievous slavery"
preview | full record— Milton, John (1608-1674)
Date: 1992
"The kingdom of the mind, therefore, included not only human understanding and willing, but also human seeing, hearing, feeling, pain, and pleasure."
preview | full record— Kenny, Anthony (b. 1931)