Date: 1760-7
"However, as he knew not what the true cause might turn out, he deemed it most prudent, in the situation he was in at present, to bear it, if possible, like a stoick; which, with the help of some wry faces and compursions of the mouth, he had certainly accomplished, had his imagination continued ...
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: 1760-7
"It is curious to observe the triumph of slight incidents over the mind:--What incredible weight they have in forming and governing our opinions, both of men and things,--that trifles light as air, shall waft a belief into the soul, and plant it so immoveably within it,--that Euclid's de...
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: 1760-7
"But here, you must distinguish--the thought floated only in Dr. Slop's mind, without sail or ballast to it, as a simple proposition; millions of which, as your worship knows, are every day swiming quietly in the middle of the thin juice of a man's understanding, without being carried backwards o...
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: 1761
"Wake my Harp! to melting Measures, / Pour thy softest, sweetest Treasures, / Such as lift the Thoughts on high; / 'Till the rapt Soul, Earth forsaking, / Heaven-ward it's Flight is taking, / On the Wings of Harmony."
preview | full record— Bickerstaff, Isaac (b. 1733, d. after 1808)
Date: 1760-1761, 1762
"My heart still hovers round those scenes of former happiness with pleasure; and I find satisfaction in enjoying them at this distance, though but in imagination."
preview | full record— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)
Date: 1760-1761, 1762
"A mind thus sunk for a while below its natural standard, is qualified for stronger flights, as those first retire who would spring forward with greater vigour"
preview | full record— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)
Date: 1760-1761, 1762
"We are not to be astonished, says Confucius, 'that the wise walk more slowly in their road to virtue, than fools in their passage to vice; since passion drags us along, while wisdom only points out the way.'"
preview | full record— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)
Date: 1763
"But fancy's pictures float upon the brain."
preview | full record— Sheridan [née Chamberlaine], Frances (1724-1766)
Date: 1767
"A holy ardor was kindled in his breast, which he had never felt before; he found his faculties enlarged, his mind was transported above this world; he felt as it were unimbodied, and an involuntary adjuration burst from his lips."
preview | full record— Sheridan [née Chamberlaine], Frances (1724-1766)
Date: 1768
"Psha! said I with an air of carelessness, three several times--but it would not do: every ungracious syllable I had utter'd, crouded back into my imagination."
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)