Date: 1795

"A soft sponginess of character that will easily acquire any hue, or any stain; a tabula rasa of intellect; a spirit invulnerable to insult; that (for example) after vain endeavors to disunite and discourage the Catholics of Ireland, could condescend to [end page 2] truck and chaffer, for the off...

— Drennan, William (1754-1820)

Date: 1796

"Does not the hope of that fill our universities with blockheads--and cram our courts full of barristers, with heads as empty as they leave their clients' pockets?"

— Morton, Thomas (1764-1838)

Date: 1796

"The eye of the mind is dazzled and vanquished."

— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)

Date: 1796

"An ancient writer, Plutarch, I think it is, quotes some verses on the eloquence of Pericles, who is called "the only orator that left stings in the minds of his hearers." Like his, the eloquence of the declaration, not contradicting, but enforcing sentiments of the truest humanity, has left stin...

— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)

Date: 1796

"Cold as ice themselves, they never could kindle in our breasts a spark of that zeal, which is necessary to a conflict with an adverse zeal; much less were they made to infuse into our minds that stubborn persevering spirit, which alone is capable of bearing up against those vicissitudes of fortu...

— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)

Date: 1796

"It has nothing that can keep the mind erect under the gusts of adversity."

— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)

Date: 1796

"It was expected that he would have re-asserted the justice of his cause; that he would have re-animated whatever remained to him of his allies, and endeavoured to recover those whom their fears had led astray; that he would have re-kindled the martial ardour of his citizens; that he would have h...

— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)

Date: 1796

"It is the common doom of man that he must eat his bread by the sweat of his brow, that is, by the sweat of his body, or the sweat of his mind."

— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)

Date: 1796

"Conscience is formally deposed from its dominion over the mind."

— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)

Date: 1797

"And every sordid, base alloy, / Let's from our bosoms move; / For was our gold but Irish brass, / Good humour's stamp can make it pass"

— O'Keeffe, John (1747-1833)