Date: 1776-1789
"The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military spirit evaporated."
preview | full record— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)
Date: 1776-1789
"The casual disputes that so frequently happened in their tumultuous parties of hunting or drinking were sufficient to inflame the minds of whole nations"
preview | full record— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)
Date: December 10, 1776; 1777
"But I am persuaded, that scarce a poet is to be found, from Homer down to Dryden, who preserved a sound mind in a sound body, and continued practising his profession to the very last, whose later works are not as replete with the fire of imagination, as those which were produced in...
preview | full record— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)
Date: 1777
"How cruel is it to extinguish by neglect or unkindness, the precious sensibility of an open temper, to chill the amiable glow of an ingenous soul, and to quench the bright flame of a noble and generous spirit!"
preview | full record— More, Hannah (1745-1833)
Date: 1777
"If I may be allowed to change the allusion so soon, I would say, that the passions also resemble fires, which are friendly and beneficial when under proper direction, but if suffered to blaze without restraint, they carry devastation along with them, and, if totally extinguished, leave the benig...
preview | full record— More, Hannah (1745-1833)
Date: 1777
"People do not always know what taste they have, till it is awakened by some corresponding object; nay, genius itself is a fire, which in many minds would never blaze, if not kindled by some external cause."
preview | full record— More, Hannah (1745-1833)
Date: 1777, 1810
"While thus he ranges unconfined, / And glory fires his ardent mind."
preview | full record— Stockdale, Percival (1736-1811)
Date: 1778
The "pure flame" of virtue is planted "by an unerring rule" and glows in the heart
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1778, 1779
"'Leave me, Madam,' cried he, with quickness, "and take care of the poor child;--bid her not think me unkind,--tell her I would at this moment plunge a dagger in my heart to serve her,--but she has set my brain on fire, and I can see her no more!'"
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1779
"Ambition! thou whose hallow'd flame can live / Only in minds refin'd from the gross elements / Of which the herd of human kind are made!"
preview | full record— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)