Date: 1759

"He then communicated the various precepts given from time to time for the conquest of passion, and displayed the happiness of those who had obtained the important victory, after which man is no longer the slave of fear, nor the fool of hope; is no more emaciated by envy, inflamed by anger, emasc...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: September 1, 1759.

"The incursions of troublesome thoughts are often violent and importunate; and it is not easy to a mind accustomed to their inroads to expel them immediately by putting better images into motion; but this enemy of quiet is above all others weakened by every defeat; the reflection which has been o...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: September 1, 1759.

"The mind cannot retire from its enemy into total vacancy, or turn aside from one object but by passing to another."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"The soul may be compared to a field of battle, where two armies are ready every moment to encounter; not a single vice but has a more powerful opponent; and not one virtue but may be overborne by a combination of vices."

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"Reason guides the bands of either host, nor can it subdue one passion but by the assistance of another."

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1774

"As in madness, the senses, from struggling with the imagination, are at length forced to submit, so, in sleep, they seem for a while soothed into the like submission: the smallest violence exerted upon any one of them, however, rouzes all the rest in their mutual defence; and the imagination, th...

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1784, 1804

"The apostle well knew that erroneous men would be busy in besieging their understandings, and that carnal objects would be labouring to engross their affections; vanity to entertain their minds, pleasures to attract their desires, and legality to entangle and govern their consciences."

— Huntington, William (1745-1813)

Date: 1784, 1804

"The apostle well knew, by his own experience, that Satan would lay strong siege to such souls; and he knew for a truth that, if one sin found acceptance and entertainment in the soul, that sin when it had engrossed the affections, would let in many more, and consequently leave a ga...

— Huntington, William (1745-1813)

Date: 1784, 1804

" When thus entangled we try to resist, but are still rebuffed or beaten back; this causes rebellion and murmuring to take possession of our hearts."

— Huntington, William (1745-1813)

Date: 1791

"In short, it must not be concealed, that like many other good and pious men, amongst whom we may place the Apostle Paul, upon his own authority, Johnson was not free from propensities which were ever 'warring against the law of his mind,'--and that in his combats with them, he was sometimes over...

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)