Date: 1789

"We have already hinted, that for the same, or similar reasons, none of the ordinary organs of sense are qualified to receive or communicate distinct impressions, till the brain, the common emporium of them all, has acquired those properties which must fit it for its arduous offices; and, as in t...

— Couper, Robert (1750-1818)

Date: 1789, 1800

"Human Nature's his show-box--your friend, would you know him? / Pull the string, Ruling Passion--the picture will show him."

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

Date: 1790

"The imagination of the spectator throws upon it either the one colour or the other, according either to his habits of thinking, or to the favour or dislike which he may bear to the person whose conduct he is considering."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"There is no commonly honest man who does not more dread the inward disgrace of such an action, the indelible stain which it would for ever stamp upon his own mind, than the greatest external calamity which, without any fault of his own, could possibly befal him; and who does not inwardly feel th...

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1790

"There is a midnight in the breast / No morn shall ever cheer."

— Baillie, Joanna (1762-1851)

Date: 1791

"If you can but kindle in your mind any strong desire, if you can but keep predominant any wish for some particular excellence or attainment, the gusts of imagination will break away, without any effect upon your conduct, and commonly without any traces left upon the memory."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: 1791

"I exclaimed to her, 'I am now, intellectually, Hermippus redivivus, I am quite restored by him, by transfusion of mind.'"

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: 1791

"The feeling of languor, which succeeds the animation of gaiety, is itself a very severe pain; and when the mind is then vacant, a thousand disappointments and vexations rush in and excruciate. Will not many even of my fairest readers allow this to be true?"

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: 1791

"I compared him at this time to a warm West-Indian climate, where you have a bright sun, quick vegetation, luxuriant foliage, luscious fruits; but where the same heat sometimes produces thunder, lightening, and earthquakes in a terrible degree.

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: 1791

"I will venture to say, that in no writings whatever can be found more bark and steel for the mind, if I may use the expression; more that can brace and invigorate every manly and noble sentiment."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)