Date: 1754
"The mind of man does often what princes and states have done. It gives a currency to brass and copper coined in the several philosophical and theological mints, and raises the value of gold and silver above that of their true standard."
preview | full record— St John, Henry, styled first Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751)
Date: 1757
"For, as an alloy to its very great advantages, there is something selfish, ungenerous and illiberal in the nature and views of trade, that tends to debase and sink the mind below its natural state."
preview | full record— Harris, Joseph (bap. 1704, d. 1764)
Date: 1759
"That a Man may be scarce less ignorant of his own powers, than an Oyster of its pearl, or a Rock of its diamond; that he may possess dormant, unsuspected abilities, till awakened by loud calls, or stung up by striking emergencies, is evident from the sudden eruption of some men, out of perfec...
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1759
"So Thoughts, when become too common, should lose their Currency; and we should send new metal to the Mint, that is, new meaning to the Press."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1760-1761, 1762
"A mind too vigorous and active, serves only to consume the body to which it is joined, as the richest jewels are soonest found to wear their settings."
preview | full record— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)
Date: 1765
"Une pierre de marbre qui a des veines plutôt que d'une pierre de marbre tout unie ou de tablettes vides, c'est-à-dire de ce qui s'appelle tabula rasa chez les philosophes."
preview | full record— Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)
Date: 1765
"If all [the mind] had was the mere capacity to receive those items of knowledge--a passive power to do so, as indeterminate as the power of wax to receive shapes or of a blank page to receive words--it would not be the source of necessary truths"
preview | full record— Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)
Date: 1765
"I have also used the analogy of a veined block of marble, as opposed to an entirely homogenous block of marble, or to a blank tablet--what the philosophers call a tabula rasa"
preview | full record— Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)
Date: 1766
"I know not whether the remark is to our honour or otherwise, that the lessons of wisdom have never such a power over us, as when they are wrought into the heart, through the ground-work of a story which engages the passions: Is it that we are like iron, and must first be heated before we can be ...
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: 1767
"Imitation indeed, of every kind, except that of nature, has a tendency to cramp the inventive powers of the mind, which, if indulged in their excursions, might discover new mines of intellectual ore, that lie hid only from those who are incapable or unwilling to dive into the recesses in which i...
preview | full record— Duff, William (1732-1815)