Date: 1777

"If you marry a man of a certain sort, such as the romance of young minds generally paints for a husband, you will deride the supposition of any possible decrease in the ardour of your affections."

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1780, 1781, 1788

"Two passions there by soft contention please, / The love of martial Fame, and learned Ease: / These friendly colours, exquisitely join'd, / Form the enchanting picture of thy mind."

— Hayley, William (1745-1820)

Date: 1781

"Which, like a skilful artist, goes to work upon the materials furnished by the senses; comparing selecting, analysing, and abstracting; till by placing them in different points of view their fitness, relations, and dependencies are seen."

— Rotheram, John (1725–1789)

Date: 1781

"But the difference is much greater between the ideas of sense, the materials upon which the mind first begins its work, and the truths produced by its operations, than between the rough marble, and the statue formed by the skill of PHIDIAS."

— Rotheram, John (1725–1789)

Date: 1781

"Let matter then be allowed to furnish the first materials; the enlightened mind, which by its operations upon these discovers truth, and pursues it through all its distant connections, must have powers as far superiour to that which gave the first impression, as PHIDIAS is superiour to the marble."

— Rotheram, John (1725–1789)

Date: 1782

"A letter is the soul's portrait. It is not a cold image, with its stagnation, so remote from love; it lends itself to all our emotions; turn by turn it grows animated, it enjoys, it rests"

— Laclos, Pierre (-Ambrose-François) Choderlos de (1741-1803)

Date: 1782

"Cheer up, my child of discretion--and comfort you self that every day will bring the endearing moment of meeting, so much nearer--chew the cud upon rapture in reversion--and indulge your fancy with the sweet food of intellectual endearments;--paint in your imagination the thousand graces of your...

— Sancho, Charles Ignatius (1729-1780)

Date: 1782

"I shall fancy myself amongst you about the time you will get this--I paint in my imagination the winning smiles, and courteously kind welcome, in the face of a certain lady, whom I cannot help caring for with the decent pleasingly demure countenance of the little C-- Squire B--, with the jovial ...

— Sancho, Charles Ignatius (1729-1780)

Date: 1783

"Secondly, The pleasure of Comparison arises from the illustration which the simile employed gives to the principal object; from the clearer view of it which it presents; or the more strong impression of it which it stamps upon the mind: and, thirdly, It arises from the introduction of a new, and...

— Blair, Hugh (1718-1800)

Date: 1785

"Language is the express image and picture of human thoughts; and, from the picture, we may often draw very certain conclusions with regard to the original."

— Reid, Thomas (1710-1796)