Date: 1734

"'Tis generally in favour of the Senses that the Passions are exerted; these are alarm'd and rise in arms, when our Pleasures are in danger."

— Forbes of Pitsligo, Alexander Forbes, Lord (1678-1762)

Date: 1734

Conscience may grovel like a conquer'd Foe " While Int'rest with a threatning Frown, / Brow-beats her still, and knocks her down"

— Forbes of Disblair (fl. 1765-1771)

Date: 1735-6

"While his the bloodless conquest of the heart, / Shouts without groan, and triumph without war"

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: January 1739

"Here then is the only expedient, from which we can hope for success in our philosophical researches, to leave the tedious lingering method, which we have hitherto followed, and instead of taking now and then a castle or village on the frontier, to march up directly to the capital or center of th...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"Nothing is more usual in philosophy, and even in common life, than to talk of the combat of passion and reason, to give the preference to reason, and assert that men are only so far virtuous as they conform themselves to its dictates."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"We speak not strictly and philosophically, when we talk of the combat of passion and of reason."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1741

"But such is the nature of the human mind, that it always lays hold on every mind that approaches it; and as it is wonderfully fortified by an unanimity of sentiments, so is it shocked and disturbed by any contrariety."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1746, 1793

"Then, then, exert thy utmost pow'r, / And teach me Being to endure; / Lest reason from the helm should start, / And lawless fury rule my heart; / Lest madness all my soul subdue, / To ask her Maker, What dost thou?"

— Blacklock, Thomas (1721-1791)

Date: 1748

"I now began to look upon myself as a gentleman in reality; learned to dance of a Frenchman whom I had cured of a fashionable distemper; frequented plays during the holidays; became the oracle of an ale-house, where every dispute was referred to my decision; and at length contracted an acquaintan...

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

Date: 1748

"I had made a conquest of her heart, and concluded myself the happiest man alive"

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)