Date: 1772

"It will remind me of what I used to be, and Pride will have to come to a standstill at the threshold of my heart."

— Diderot, Denis (1713-1784)

Date: 1777

"The minds of the negroes are contracted; because slavery destroys all the springs of the soul."

— Raynal, Guillaume Thomas (1713-1796)

Date: 1780-85; in French, 36 vols. 1749-1788

"Is it difficult to perceive that our ideas originate from our senses alone; that the objects we regard as real existences, are those concerning which the senses uniformly give the same testimony."

— Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de (1707-1788)

Date: 1788

"Those arts that ornament the mind, as geography, arithmetic, —"

— Berquin, Arnaud

Date: 1788

"A humane heart always rejoices to soften the distresses of its fellow creatures."

— Berquin, Arnaud

Date: 1788

"In short, one wants but fingers, and no head for games of chance: and in my thought, such games are utterly unworthy of a thinking man."

— Berquin, Arnaud