Date: 1790, 1794
He was allowed to do so, and read it till every word was imprinted on his memory; and after enjoying the sad luxury of holding it that night on his bosom, was forced the next morning to relinquish his treasure."
preview | full record— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)
Date: February 1791
"Call to mind the sentiments which nature has engraved on the heart of every citizen, and which take a new force when they are solemnly recognised by all."
preview | full record— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)
Date: 1792
"The understanding, it is true, may keep us from going out of drawing when we group our thoughts, or transcribe from the imagination and warm sketches of fancy; but the animal spirits, the individual character, give the colouring."
preview | full record— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)
Date: 1792
"For any kind of reading, I think better than leaving a blank still blank, because the mind must receive a degree of enlargement and obtain a little strength by a slight exertion of its thinking powers."
preview | full record— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)
Date: 1794
"Therefore I take the mind or soul of men to be so perfectly indifferent to receive all impressions, as a rasa tabula, or white paper, &c."
preview | full record— Morell, Thomas (1703-1784)
Date: 1795
"The infant mind has been compared to a tabula rasa, or sheet of clean paper: but there is this essential difference, as hath been well observed, between the opposite objects of comparison they are not both equally Indifferent to the inscription which they are to bear."
preview | full record— Napleton, John (1738/9-1817)
Date: w. 1788-93, 1796 (rev. 1815, 1827, 1837, 1897)
"The action of the pen will doubtless imprint an idea on the mind as well as on the paper: but I much question whether the benefits of this laborious method are adequate to the waste of time; and I must agree with Dr. Johnson, (Idler, No. 74.) 'that what is twice read, is commonly better remember...
preview | full record— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)
Date: 1796
"Edgar, touched by a comparison to the person he most honoured, gratefully looked his acknowledgment; and all displeasure at her flight, even from Thomson's scene of conjugal felicity, was erased from his mind."
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1796
"I then--alas, too late! dived deeper, with, then, useless investigation,--and discovered an early passion, never erased from her mind;--discovered--that I had never made her happy! that she was merely enduring, suffering me--while my whole confiding soul was undividedly hers!"
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1797
"Their [young persons'] minds are like a sheet of white paper, which takes any impression that it is proposed to make upon it."
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)