Date: 1747
"But the wild passions, once broke loose, to check / Surpass'd his pow'r, or the slack'd reins recall."
preview | full record— Cardinal Melchior de Polignac (1661-1741)
Date: 1748, 1749
"Man is a machine so compound, that it is impossible to form at first a clear idea thereof, and consequently to define it. This is the reason, that all the enquiries the philosophers have made a priori, that is, by endeavouring to raise themselves on the wings of the understanding have proved ine...
preview | full record— Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751)
Date: 1748, 1749
"Like that bird on yonder spray, the imagination seems to be perpetually ready to take wing."
preview | full record— Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751)
Date: 1748, 1749
"It is ridiculous to exclaim against the dominion of the will. For one order which it gives, a hundred times does it come under the yoke."
preview | full record— Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751)
Date: 1762
"Du reste, renversant, détruisant, foulant aux pieds tout ce que les hommes respectent, ils ôtent aux affligés la dernière consolation de leur misère, aux puissants & aux riches le seul frein de leurs passions; ils arrachent du fond des coeurs le remords du crime, l’espoir de la vertu, & se vante...
preview | full record— Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712-1778)