Date: Tuesday, January 22, 1751
"The loose sparkles of thoughtless wit may give new light to the mind, and the gay contention for paradoxical positions rectify the opinions."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Tuesday, March 10, 1752
"It is not sufficient to maintain the first vigour; for excellence loses its effect upon the mind by custom, as light after a time ceases to dazzle."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1755
"That it will immediately become popular I have not promised to myself: a few wild blunders, and risible absurdities, from which no work of such multiplicity was ever free, may for a time furnish folly with laughter, and harden ignorance in contempt; but useful diligence will at last prevail, and...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1758
"But when, in Parties of Conversation, she glows by the Beams of Reason, then command her [the soul] to speak from Inspiration and utter the Oracles of Justice [like a Grasshopper]."
preview | full record— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)
Date: 1759
"Therefore dive deep into thy bosom; learn the depth, extent, biass, and full fort of thy mind; contract full intimacy with the Stranger within thee; excite, and cherish every spark of Intellectual light and heat, however smothered under former negligence, or scattered through the dull, dark m...
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1759
"A Genius implies the rays of the mind concenter'd, and determined to some particular point; when they are scatter'd widely, they act feebly, and strike not with sufficient force, to fire, or dissolve, the heart."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1759
"For, consider, since an impartial Providence scatters talents indifferently, as thro' all orders of persons, so thro' all periods of time; since, a marvelous light, unenjoy'd of old, is pour'd on us by revelation, with larger prospects extending our Understanding, with brighter objects enriching...
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1759
"When we read, let our imagination kindle at their charms; when we write, let our judgment shut them out of our thoughts; treat even Homer himself, as his royal admirer was treated by the cynic; bid him stand aside, nor shade our Composition from the beams of our own genius; for nothing Original ...
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1759
"His mighty mind travelled round the intellectual world; and, with a more than eagle's eye, saw, and has pointed out blank spaces, or dark spots in it, on which the human mind never shone."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1759
"Few authors of distinction but have experienced something of this nature, at the first beamings of their yet unsuspected Genius on their hitherto dark Composition: The writer starts at it, as at a lucid Meteor in the night; is much surprized; can scarce believe it true"
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)