Date: 1790
"Indeed in the gross and complicated mass of human passions and concerns, the primitive rights of men undergo such a variety of refractions and reflections, that it becomes absurd to talk of them as if they continued in the simplicity of their original direction."
preview | full record— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)
Date: 1791
"LORD TRIMBLESTOWN. 'True, Sir. As the ladies love to see themselves in a glass; so a man likes to see himself in his journal.' ... BOSWELL. "And as a lady adjusts her dress before a mirror, a man adjusts his character by looking at his journal.'"
preview | full record— Boswell, James (1740-1795)
Date: 1792
"The imagination becomes a camera obscura, only with this difference, that the camera represents objects as they really are; while the imagination, impressed with the most beautiful scenes, and chastened by rules of art, forms it's pictures, not only from the most admirable parts of nature; but i...
preview | full record— Gilpin, William (1724-1804)
Date: 1793
"How can you induce him to be dissatisfied with his present acquisitions, while every other person assures him that his accomplishments are admirable and his mind a mirror of sagacity?"
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Date: November 19, 1793
"But with the assistance of my motto, I hope at once to elucidate the observation, brighten the mirror of fancy, and solve the fluctuation of doubt."
preview | full record— Boyd, Hugh (1746-1794)
Date: 1798
"No neighbour mind serves as a mirror to reflect the generous confidence he felt within himself; and perhaps the man never yet existed, who could maintain his enthusiasm to its full vigour, in the midst of this kind of solitariness."
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)