page 5 of 7     per page:
sorted by:

Date: 1783

In reverie "we are conscious of something like mental relaxation; while one idea brings in another, which gives way to a third, and that in its turn is succeeded by others; the mind seeming all along to be passive, and to exert as little authority over its thoughts, as the eye does over the perso...

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

preview | full record

Date: 1783

"Superstition is one of the worst diseases of the soul."

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

preview | full record

Date: 1783

"That 'quickness in turning,' which the poet justly imagines to be essential to fine eyes, betokens in the mind a capacity of passing readily from one thought to another; an agreeable talent, when accompanied with good sense; and just the reverse of sullenness, inattention, and stupidity"

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

preview | full record

Date: 1783

"The fruits of Sobriety are health, gladness, governable passions, clear discernment, rectitude of opinion, the esteem of others, and long life; which, with an approving conscience, are the greatest blessings here below, and, in all common cases, an effectual security against a diseased imaginati...

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

preview | full record

Date: 1783

"The human brain is a bodily substance; and sensible and permanent impressions made upon it must so far resemble those made on sand by the foot, or on wax by the seal, as to have certain shape, length, breadth, and deepness"

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

preview | full record

Date: 1783

"What toil and perseverance, in cultivating the bodily powers, must it require, to qualify the tumbler for those feats of activity, with which he astonishes mankind! [... ]Were we to take equal pains in the improvement of our intellectual and moral nature, which are surely not less susceptible of...

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

preview | full record

Date: 1785

"To this it is owing, that, in ancient languages, the word which denotes the soul, is that which properly signifies breath or air."

— Reid, Thomas (1710-1796)

preview | full record

Date: 1785

"I saw in this nobleman the best dispositions and best principles; and I saw him, in my mind's eye, to be the representative of the ancient Boyds of Kilmarnock."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

preview | full record

Date: 1791

"But a convert from Popery to Protestantism, gives up so much of what he has held as sacred as any thing that he retains; there is so much laceration of mind in such a conversion, that it can hardly be sincere and lasting"

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

preview | full record

Date: 1791

"He [Johnson] entered upon a curious discussion of the difference between intuition and sagacity; one being immediate in its effect, the other requiring a circuitous process; one he observed was the eye of the mind, the other the nose of the mind."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

preview | full record

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.