Date: 1745

"For it is no real dishonour or fault in a man to have but a small ability of mind, provided be hath not the vanity to set up for a genius (which would be as ridiculous, as for a man of small strength and stature of body to set up for a champion), because this is what he cannot help."

— Mason, John (1706-1763)

Date: 1745

"But what is most dishonourable of all is, for a man at once to discover a great genius and an ungoverned mind. Because that strength of reason and understanding he is master of gives him a great advantage for the government of his passions."

— Mason, John (1706-1763)

Date: 1745

"And therefore his suffering himself notwithstanding to be governed by them, shows that he hath too much neglected or misapplied his natural talent, and willingly submitted to the tyranny of those lusts and passions, over which nature had furnished him with abilities to have secured an easy conqu...

— Mason, John (1706-1763)

Date: 1745

"As in the humours of the body, so in the vices of the mind, there is one predominant which has an ascendant over us, and leads and governs us."

— Mason, John (1706-1763)

Date: 1745

"The wounds of the conscience, like those of the body, cannot be well cured till they are searched to the bottom; and they cannot be searched without pain."

— Mason, John (1706-1763)

Date: 1745

"Why should you study to conceal or excuse it, and fondly cherish that viper in your bosom?"

— Mason, John (1706-1763)

Date: 1746

"Passions are opposed to passions and one can serve as a counterweight to another."

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715-1747)

Date: 1746

"And with him took none but O'Neil, / Whose heart he found as true as steel"

— Graham, Dougal (bap. 1721, d. 1779)

Date: 1746

"All the shadowy tribes of Mind / In braided dance their murmurs joined, / And all the bright uncounted powers, / Who feed on heaven's ambrosial flowers."

— Collins, William (1721-1759)

Date: 1746

"Farewell, for clearer ken designed, / The dim-discovered tracts of mind: / Truths which, from action's paths retired, / My silent search in vain required!"

— Collins, William (1721-1759)