Date: August 27, 1751

"It had been a task worthy of the moral philosophers to have considered with equal care [as physicians have traced in the body the "various periods of the constitution"] the climactericks of the mind; to have pointed out the time at which every passion begins and ceases to predominate, and noted ...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, February 25, 1752

"The eye of the mind, like that of the body, can only extend its view to new objects, by losing sight of those which are now before it."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, March 20, 1753

"[I]t is to be regretted, therefore, that he did not exercise his mind less, and his body more: since by this means, it is highly probable, that though he would not then have astonished with the blaze of a comet, he would yet have shone with the permanent radiance of a fixed star."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, October 2, 1753

"Every other passion is alike simple and limited, if it be considered only with regard to the breast which it inhabits; the anatomy of the mind, as that of the body, must perpetually exhibit the same appearances; and though by the continued industry of successive inquirers, new movements will be ...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: September 15, 1759

"The hand has no closer correspondence with the Memory than the eye"

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: September 15, 1759

"No man will read with much advantage, who is not able, at pleasure, to evacuate his mind, or who brings not to his Author an intellect defecated and pure, neither turbid with care nor agitated by pleasure."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1759

"To the mind, as to the eye, it is difficult to compare with exactness objects vast in their extent, and various in their parts."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1759

"Our minds, like our bodies, are in continual flux; something is hourly lost, and something acquired."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1759

"Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye, and while we glide along the stream of time, whatever we leave behind us is always lessening, and that which we approach increasing in magnitude."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: December 29, 1759

"If the senses were feasted with perpetual pleasure, they would always keep the mind in subjection."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)