Date: 1793
In a just society "understanding would convert into a real power, no longer an ignis fatuus, shining and expiring by turns, and leading us into sloughs of sophistry, false science and specious mistake"
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Date: 1793
"Mind will frequently burst forth, but its appearance will be like the corruscations of the meteor, not like the mild illumination of the sun"
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Date: 1793
"Their result will be thick darkness of the mind, timidity, servility, hypocrisy."
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Date: 1793
"It is curious to observe the first dawn of genius breaking on the mind. Sometimes a man of genius, in his first effusions, is so far from revealing his future powers, that, on the contrary, no reasonable hope can be formed of his success."
preview | full record— Disraeli, Isaac (1766-1848)
Date: 1794
"It [Christianity] has put the whole orbit of reason into shade."
preview | full record— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)
Date: 1794
"Reason is God's candle in man. But, as a candle must first be lighted, ere it will enlighten; so reason must be illuminated by divine grace, ere it can savingly discern spiritual things."
preview | full record— Toplady, Augustus (1740-1771)
Date: w. 1788-93, 1796 (rev. 1815, 1827, 1837, 1897)
"But this obscurity sometimes proceeds from a mixture of light and darkness in the author's mind; from a partial ray which strikes upon an angle, instead of spreading itself over the surface of an object."
preview | full record— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)