Date: Wednesday, October 31, 1711

"You have, in my Opinion, raised a good presumptive Argument from the increasing Appetite the Mind has to Knowledge, and to the extending its own Faculties, which cannot be accomplished, as the more restrained Perfection of lower Creatures may, in the Limits of a short Life."

— Hughes, John (1678?-1720)

Date: Thursday, November 1, 1711

"Horace has a Thought which is something akin to this, when, in order to excuse himself to his Mistress, for an Invective which he had written against her, and to account for that unreasonable Fury with which the Heart of Man is often transported, he tells us that, when Prometheus made his Man of...

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Thursday, November 1, 1711

"But upon turning this Plan to and fro in my Thoughts, I observed so many unaccountable Humours in Man, that I did not know out of what Animals to fetch them."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Thursday, November 1, 1711

"Ever since your Spectator of Tuesday last came into our Family, my Husband is pleased to call me his Oceana, because the foolish old Poet that you have translated says, That the Souls of some Women are made of Sea-Water. This, it seems, has encouraged my Sauce-Box to be witty upon me."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Saturday, November 17, 1711

"I have often thought if the Minds of Men were laid open, we should see but little Difference between that of the Wise Man and that of the Fool. There are infinite Reveries, numberless Extravagancies, and a perpetual Train of Vanities which pass through both."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Saturday, November 17, 1711

"Discretion has large and extended Views, and, like a well-formed Eye, commands a whole Horizon: Cunning is a Kind of Short-sightedness, that discovers the minutest Objects which are near at hand, but is not able to discern things at a distance."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Saturday, December 1, 1711

"In our present Condition, which is a middle State, our Minds are, as it were, chequered with Truth and Falshood; and as our Faculties are narrow, and our Views imperfect, it is impossible but our Curiosity must meet with many Repulses."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: December 24, 1711

"Ambition raises a secret Tumult in the Soul, it inflames the Mind, and puts it into a violent Hurry of Thought: It is still reaching after an empty imaginary Good, that has not in it the Power to abate or satisfy it."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: December 24, 1711

"It may indeed fill the Mind for a while with a giddy kind of Pleasure, but it is such a Pleasure as makes a Man restless and uneasy under it; and which does not so much satisfy the present Thirst, as it excites fresh Desires, and sets the Soul on new Enterprises."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: December 24, 1711

"The Desire of it stirs up very uneasy Motions in the Mind, and is rather inflamed than satisfied by the Presence of the Thing desired."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)