Date: 1785, 1838

"Hapless the lad whose mind such dreams [of scribbling] invade, / And win to verse the talents due to trade."

— Crabbe, George (1754-1832)

Date: 1785

"'Twixt shame and passion floats the struggling mind, / To Virtue now, and now to vice inclin'd, / This frowns refusal, that persuades to yield, / Till Reason falls, and Passion takes the field."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1786

"From that awful period, almost every expectation is forlorn: the heart is left unguarded: its great protector is no more: the vices therefore, which so long encompassed it in vain, obtain an easy victory: in crouds they pour into the defenceless avenues, and take possession of the soul: there is...

— Clarkson, Thomas (1760–1846)

Date: 1786

"This conduct is not only inhuman, but impious in the highest degree; as at this awful tremendous moment, desponding fears and infidel doubts find an easy conquest of a mind, which, though not strengthened by Christian philosophy, is considerably weakened by disease."

— Nolan, William (fl. 1786)

Date: 1787

"If any assistance be given to the oligarchic party within him, by his father, or the others of his family, admonishing and upbraiding him, then truly arises sedition and opposition, and a fight within him, with himself."

— Adams, John (1735-1826)

Date: 1787

"Again, when some desires retire, there are others akin to them, which grow up, and through inattention to the father's instructions, become both many and powerful, draw towards intimacies among themselves, and generate a multitude, seize the citadel or the soul of the youth, finding it evacuated...

— Adams, John (1735-1826)

Date: 1787

"These false and boasting reasonings, denominating modesty to be stupidity; temperance, unmanliness; moderation, rusticity; decent expence, illiberality; thrust them all out disgracefully, and expel them their territories, and lead in in triumph insolence and anarchy, and luxury and impudence, wi...

— Adams, John (1735-1826)

Date: 1786, 1787, 1788; 1789

"She can conquer a heart--that she wants sense to keep."

— Williams, John [pseud. Anthony Pasquin] (1754-1818)

Date: 1786, 1787, 1788; 1789

"For spells may be said to exist in that tone, / Whose graces can conquer all hearts--but her own."

— Williams, John [pseud. Anthony Pasquin] (1754-1818)

Date: 1790

"In proportion to the degree of the self-command which is necessary in order to conquer our natural sensibility, the pleasure and pride of the conquest are so much the greater; and this pleasure and pride are so great that no man can be altogether unhappy who completely enjoys them."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)