Date: 1742, 1777

"The heart, mean while, is empty of all enjoyment: And the mind, unsupported by its proper objects, sinks into the deepest sorrow and dejection."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1748, 1754

"But when [the mind] soars above mortal Cares and mortal Pursuits, into the Regions of Divinity, and converses with the greatest and best of Beings, it spreads itself into a wider Compass, takes higher Flights in Reason and Goodness, and becomes God-like in its Air and Manners."

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)

Date: 1751

"Mankind would be in a perpetual reverie; ideas would be constantly floating in the mind; and no man be able to connect his ideas with himself."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1751

"A reverie is nothing else, but a wandering of the mind through its ideas, without carrying along the perception of self."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1751

"Frightful ideas croud into the mind, and augment the fear, which is occasioned by darkness."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1759

"The violent emotions which at that time agitate us, discolour our views of things, even when we are endeavouring to place ourselves in the situation of another, and to regard the objects that interest us, in the light which they will naturally appear to him. The fury of our own passions constant...

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1759

"When two objects have frequently been seen together, the imagination acquires a habit of passing easily from the one to the other."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1759

"Of their own accord they put us in mind of one another, and the attention glides easily along them."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1761

"I can form a just comparison between those great objects and the little objects around me, in no other way than by transporting myself, at least in fancy, to a different station, from whence I can survey both at nearly equal distances, and thereby form some judgment of their real proportions."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1762

"The mind falls with a heavy body, descends with a river, and ascends with flame and smoke."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)