Date: 1787
"Virtue sleeps / While all the finest faculties of mind / Rust, like the iron long unus'd"
preview | full record— Yearsley, Ann (bap. 1753, d. 1806)
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: February 1791
"It has apparently burst forth like a creation from a chaos, but it is no more than the consequence of a mental revolution priorily existing in France."
preview | full record— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)
Date: February 1791
"Montesquieu, President of the Parliament of Bordeaux, went as far as a writer under a despotic government could well proceed; and being obliged to divide himself between principle and prudence, his mind often appears under a veil, and we ought to give him credit for more than he has expressed."
preview | full record— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)
Date: February 1791
"The mind, in discovering truth, acts in the same manner as it acts through the eye in discovering objects; when once any object has been seen, it is impossible to put the mind back to the same condition it was in before it saw it."
preview | full record— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)
Date: 1794
"I have always made it a rule to treat those voluntary visitors [that bolt into the mind of their own accord] with civility, taking care to examine, as well as I was able, if they were worth entertaining; and it is from them I have acquired almost all the knowledge that I have."
preview | full record— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)
Date: 1794
"Every person of learning is finally his own teacher; the reason of which is, that principles, being of a distinct quality to circumstances, cannot be impressed upon the memory; their place of mental residence is the understanding, and they are never so lasting as when they begin by conception."
preview | full record— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)
Date: 1794
"As to the learning that any person gains from school education, it serves only, like a small capital, to put him in the way of beginning learning for himself afterwards."
preview | full record— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)
Date: 1794
"It [Christianity] has put the whole orbit of reason into shade."
preview | full record— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)