Date: Tuesday, April 24, 1750
"Those sudden bursts of rage generally break out upon small occasions; for life, unhappy as it is, cannot supply great evils as frequently as the man of fire thinks it fit to be enraged; therefore the first reflection upon his violence must shew him that he is mean enough to be driven from his po...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Saturday, September 22, 1750
"The thoughts that entered my soul were too strong to be diverted, and too piercing to be endured; but such violence cannot be lasting, the storm subsided in a short time, I wept, retired, and grew calm."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1751
"There are few among Mankind, who have not been often struck with Admiration at the Sight of that Variety of Colours and Magnificence of Form, which appear in an Evening Rainbow. The uninstructed in Philosophy consider that splendid Object, not as dependent on any other, but as being possessed of...
preview | full record— Brown, John (1715-1766)
Date: Tuesday, August 14, 1753
"But from the opposite errour, from torpid despondency, can come no advantage; it is the frost of the soul, which binds up all its powers, and congeals life in perpetual sterility."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1755
"But where the Heart is PARTIALLY ENGAGED, we have frequent Instances of its clouding the Understanding, and MAKING DUPES OF THE WISEST."
preview | full record— Charke [née Cibber; other married name Sacheverell], Charlotte [alias Mr Brown] (1713-1760)
Date: 1755
"THE SHOCK OF RECEIVING MY OWN LETTER did not excite a sudden Gust of unwarrantable Passion, but prey'd upon my Heart with the slow and eating Fire of Distraction and Despair, 'till it ended in a Fever, which now remains upon my Spirits; and which, I fear, I shall find a difficult Task to overcome."
preview | full record— Charke [née Cibber; other married name Sacheverell], Charlotte [alias Mr Brown] (1713-1760)
Date: 1758
"As you would not wish to sail in a large, and finely decorated, and gilded Ship, and sink: so neither is it eligible to inhabit a grand and sumptuous House, and be in a Storm [of Passions and Cares]."
preview | full record— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)
Date: 1766
"'Melancholy', is, generally, the effect of constitution; its cloudy ideas overpower and banish all that are chearful."
preview | full record— Trusler, John (1735-1820)
Date: January 2, 1769
"Every seminary of learning may be said to be surrounded with an atmosphere of floating knowledge, where every mind may gather somewhat congenial to its own original conceptions."
preview | full record— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)
Date: 1774
Romances "ventilate the mind by sudden gusts of passion; and prevent the stagnation of thought, by a fresh infusion of dissimilar ideas"
preview | full record— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)