Date: 1699

"We do plainly perceive that our Bodies are clogs to our Minds: And all the use that even the purest sort of Body in an Estate conceived to be glorified, can be of to a Mind, is to be an Instrument of local Motion, or to be a repository of Ideas for Memory and Imagination."

— Burnet, Gilbert (1643-1715)

Date: 1699

"They infer, That besides the outward Enlightening of a Man by Knowledge, there is an inward Enlightening of the Mind, and a secret forcible conviction stampt on it."

— Burnet, Gilbert (1643-1715)

Date: 1729

"Souls, of your Stamp, can pity and protect, / And gather Fame from other Men's Neglect"

— Mitchell, Joseph (c. 1684-1738)

Date: 1732

"Thoughts crowd on Thoughts, as Alps on Alps arise, / And Worlds of Wonder open to my Eyes."

— Mitchell, Joseph (c. 1684-1738)

Date: 1751

"If motives be of very different kinds, with regard to strength and influence, which we feel to be the case; it is involved in the very idea of the strongest motive, that it must have the strongest effect in determining the mind. This can no more be doubted of, than that, in a balance, the greate...

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1751

"In other cases, where the field of choice is wider, and where opposite motives counterbalance and work against each other, the mind fluctuates for a while, and feels itself more loose: but, in the end, must as necessarily be determined to the side of the most powerful motive, as the balance, aft...

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1751

"The laws of mind, and the laws of matter, are in this respect perfectly similar; tho', in making the comparison, we are apt to deceive ourselves."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1751

"A weak motive makes some impression: but, in opposition to one more powerful, it has no effect to determine the mind. In the precise same manner, a small force will not overcome a great resistance; nor the weight of an ounce in one scale, counter-balance a pound in the other."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1759

"But when a father fails in the ordinary degree of parental affection towards a son; when a son seems to want that filial reverence which might be expected to his father; when brothers are without the usual degree of brotherly affection; when a man shuts his breast against compassion, and refuses...

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1759

"The thought of this perpetually haunts him, and fills him with terror and amazement."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)