Date: 1748, 1754

"The sensible Beauty, or Good, is refined from its Dross by partaking of the Moral, and the Moral receives a Stamp, a visible Character and Currency from the Sensible."

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)

Date: 1753

"This new domestic, whose name was Maurice, underwent, with great applause, the examination of our hero, who perceived in him, a fund of sagacity and presence of mind, by which he was excellently qualified for being the valet of an adventurer; he was therefore accommodated with a second hand suit...

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

Date: 1760

"Sudden my verses take the rude alarm, / New-coin'd, and from the mint of fancy warm"

— Hamilton, William, of Bangour (1704-1754)

Date: 1762

"The pleasure of a train of ideas, is the most remarkable in a reverie; especially where the imagination interposes, and is active in coining new ideas, which is done with wonderful facility."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1767

"It may be easily conceived therefore, that an original Poetic Genius, possessing such innate treasure (if we may be allowed an unphilosophical expression) has no use for that which is derived from books, since he may be encumbered, but cannot be inriched by it; for though the chief merit of ordi...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: August 31, 1772

"For sure your head-piece is a mint / Whar wit's nae rare."

— Fergusson, Robert (1750-1774)

Date: 1773

"Yet there is a wide distinction between the confidence which becomes a man, and the simplicity that disgraces a simpleton: he who never trusts is a niggard of his soul, who starves himself, and by whom no other is enriched; but he who gives every one his confidence, and every one his praise, squ...

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1777

"With regard to himself, however, he accepts of the common opinion, as a sort of coin, which passes current, though it is not always real, and often seems to yield up the conviction of his own mind in compliance to the general voice."

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1777

"Somebody, I think, has compared them to small pieces of coin, which, though of less value than the large, are more current amongst men; but the parallel fails in one respect: a thousand of those livres do not constitute a louis; and I have known many characters possessed of all tha...

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1785

"To apply his great mind to minute particulars, is wrong: it is like taking an immense balance, such as is kept on quays for weighing cargoes of ships, to weigh a guinea. I knew I had neat little scales, which would do better; and that his attention to every thing which falls in his way, and his ...

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)