page 4 of 7     per page:
sorted by:

Date: 1722

"There is nothing so absurd, so surfeiting, so ridiculous as a Man heated by Wine in his Head, and a wicked Gust in his Inclination together; he is in the possession of two Devils at once, and can no more govern himself by his Reason than a Mill can Grind without Water."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

preview | full record

Date: 1722, 1723

"For Jesus sake, remove not my Distress, / Till free Triumphant Grace shall Reposess / The Vacant Throne; from whence my Sins Depart, / And make a willing Captive of my Heart."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

preview | full record

Date: 1724

"It is for this Reason, that I have so largely set down the Particulars of the Caresses I was treated with by the Jeweller, and also by this Prince; not to make the Story an Incentive to the Vice, which I am now such a sorrowful Penitent for being guilty of, God forbid any shou'd make so vile a U...

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

preview | full record

Date: 1726

"Reason alone is sufficient to govern a Rational Creature; which was therefore a Character we had no Pretence to challenge"

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

preview | full record

Date: 1733, 1736

"The ruling Passion conquers reason still."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

preview | full record

Date: 1733-4

"And hence one Master Passion in the breast, / Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

preview | full record

Date: 1733-4

"So, cast and mingled with his very frame, / The mind's disease, its ruling passion came: / Each vital humour which should feed the whole, / Soon flows to this, in body and in soul."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

preview | full record

Date: 1733-4

"Nature its mother, Habit is its nurse; / Wit, Spirit, Faculties, but make it worse; / Reason itself but gives it edge and pow'r; / As Heaven's blest beam turns vinegar more sowr; / We wretched subjects tho' to lawful sway, / In this weak queen, some fav'rite still obey."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

preview | full record

Date: 1733-4

"Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave, / Is emulation in the learn'd or brave:"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

preview | full record

Date: 1734

"'Tis in the ruling Passion: there alone, / The wild are constant, and the cunning known, / The fool consistent, and the false sincere; / Priests, Princes, Women, no dissemblers here."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

preview | full record

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