Date: September 15, 1759
"Where there is no striking disparity, it is difficult to know of two which remembers most, and still more difficult to discover which read with greater attention, which has renewed the first impression by more frequent repetitions, or by what accidental combination of ideas either mind might hav...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: September 15, 1759
"Thus they load their minds with superfluous attention, repress the vehemence of curiosity by useless deliberation, and by frequent interruption break the current of narration or the chain of reason, and at last close the volume, and forget the passages and the marks together."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: September 15, 1759
"The hand has no closer correspondence with the Memory than the eye"
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: September 15, 1759
"No man will read with much advantage, who is not able, at pleasure, to evacuate his mind, or who brings not to his Author an intellect defecated and pure, neither turbid with care nor agitated by pleasure."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: September 15, 1759
"If the repositories of thought are already full, what can they receive?"
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1759
"But if an Original, by being as excellent, as new, adds admiration to surprize, then are we at the writer's mercy; on the strong wing of his imagination, we are snatched from Britain to Italy, from climate to climate, from pleasure to pleasure; we have no home, no thou...
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1759
"It is with Thoughts, as it is with Words; and with both, as with Men; they may grow old, and die."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1759
"So Thoughts, when become too common, should lose their Currency; and we should send new metal to the Mint, that is, new meaning to the Press."
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
"Are not our minds cast in the same mould with those before the flood? The flood affected matter; mind escaped."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)