Date: 1776

"When Dr. Johnson speaks, we listen with respect and admiration, and feel our minds impressed with such an attentive kind of veneration, as I imagine was paid to the oracles of old."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"When Mrs. Montagu, in the purest and most elegant language, delivers sentiments equally just and sublime as his, we are surprised and delighted; the gracefulness of her manner seems to add beauty to her thoughts; her words sink into our hearts, like the softest sounds of the most perfect harmony...

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"I really begin to think that his heart is 'soused in snow,' as Madame de l'Enclos says of Sevigné, which neither your bright eyes or mine can thaw."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"Not minds of melancholy strain, / Still silent, or that still complain, / Can the dear bondage bless; / As well may heavenly concert spring / From two old lutes with ne'er a string, / Or none besides the bass."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"There is no sex in souls."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"Indeed, I fear Sir James is posting to destruction; the company he keeps must sink his mind as well as his fortune."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"The beautiful and sublime are here mingled in the superlative degree; the great Creator's works, unspoiled by art, rush on the mind, and fill it with delight and awe."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"No, Stanley! neither Miss Harrison, nor any other woman I have seen in this kingdom, has made any impression on my heart; tho' I acknowledge I have beheld much beauty here, and that the lady I have named has charms sufficient, both of mind and person, to inspire the tenderest passion in a vacant...

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"But I have other visions still more dreadful--spectres, indeed, that have long stampt indelible impressions on my heart and mind."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1776

"She has not yet recovered the vivacity she possessed before her attachment to Captain Williams; but time, they say, can conquer every thing, and will, I trust, erase the memory of that disagreeable event from her mind."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)