Date: Dated August 6, 1707; 1711
"The mind of man is at first (if you will pardon the expression) like a tabula rasa, or like wax, which, while it is soft, is capable of any impression, till time has hardened it."
preview | full record— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)
Date: 1713, 1734
"You cannot say objects are in your mind, as books in your study: or that things are imprinted on it, as the figure of a seal upon wax."
preview | full record— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)
Date: 1728
"With respect to the simple Perception of Mere Sense he is still upon the same Level with Brutes; he is altogether Passive; he retains all the Signatures and Impressions of outward Objects, but in the very Order only in which they are stamped; with Transposing or Altering, Dividing, or Compoundin...
preview | full record— Browne, Peter (d. 1735)