Date: 1704-5; 1731

"If a man's Body be under confinement, or he be impotent in his Limbs, he is then deprived of his bodily Liberty: And for the same Reason, if his Mind be blinded by sottish Errors, and his Reason over-ruled by violent Passions; is not This likewise plainly as great a Slavery and as ...

— Clarke, Samuel (1675-1729)

Date: May 6, 1736

"These first Characters therefore ought to be deeply and beautifully struck, and the Learning they express should be of great Price. And this, if timely Care be taken, may be done with ease because the Mind is then soft and tender: and because Truth and Right are by the nature of Things, as pleas...

— Denne, John (1693-1767)

Date: 1737

"That man makes a mean figure in the eye of reason, who is measuring syllables and coupling rhimes, when he should be mending his own soul and securing his own immortality."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737, 1743

"Our Passions are like Convulsion-Fits, which, although they make us stronger for the time, leave us the weaker ever after."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737, 1743

"Superstition is the Spleen of the Soul."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737, 1743

"Wit in Conversation is only a readiness of thought and a facility of Expression, or (in the Midwives Phrase) a quick Conception and an easie Delivery."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737

"You see 'tis with weak heads as with weak stomachs, they immediately throw out what they received last; and what they read floats upon the surface of their mind, like oil upon water, without incorporating."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1739-40

"The understanding, like the eye (says Mr. Locke), whilst it makes us see and perceive all other things, takes no notice of itself; and it requires art and pains to set it at a distance and make it its own object."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1741

"Without Memory the Soul of Man would be but a poor destitute naked Being, with an everlasting Blank spread over it, except the fleeting ideas of the present Moment."

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

Date: 1741

"Such practices may happen to discourage and jade the Mind by an Attempt above its Power, it may balk the Understanding, and create an Aversion to future Diligence, and perhaps by Despair may forbid the Pursuit of that subject for ever afterwards; as a Limb over-strained by lifting a Weight above...

— Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)