Date: Saturday, December 22, 1711

"The Use therefore of the Passions is to stir it up, and to put it upon Action, to awaken the Understanding, to enforce the Will, and to make the whole Man more vigorous and attentive in the Prosecutions of his Designs."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Monday, March 12, 1711

"The Mind that lies fallow but a single Day, sprouts up in Follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous Culture."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Monday, March 12, 1711

"There is another Set of Men that I must likewise lay a Claim to, whom I have lately called the Blanks of Society, as being altogether unfurnish'd with Ideas."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Wednesday, June 27, 1711

"Not to be tedious, there is scarce any Emotion in the Mind which does not produce a suitable Agitation in the Fan; insomuch, that if I only see the Fan of a disciplin'd Lady, I know very well whether she laughs, frowns, or blushes."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Thursday, July 12, 1711

"I consider the Body as a System of Tubes and Glands, or to use a more Rustick Phrase, a Bundle of Pipes and Strainers, fitted to one another after so wonderful a Manner as to make a proper Engine for the Soul to work with."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Thursday, July 12, 1711

"I might here mention the Effects which this has upon all the Faculties of the Mind, by keeping the Understanding clear, the Imagination untroubled, and refining those Spirits that are necessary for the proper Exertion of our intellectual Faculties, during the present Laws of Union between Soul a...

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Thursday, July 3rd, 1712

"When the Brain is hurt by Accident, or the mind disordered by Dreams or Sickness, the Fancy is over-run with wild dismal Ideas, and terrified with a thousand hideous Monsters of its own framing."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Thursday, July 3rd, 1712

"Babylon in Ruins is not so melancholy a Spectacle" as a distracted Person, whose "imagination is troubled" and whose "whole soul [is] disordered and confused."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Thursday, July 3rd, 1712

"By these Allusions [similitudes, metaphors, and allegories] a Truth in the Understanding is as it were reflected by the Imagination; we are able to see something like Colour and Shape in a Notion, and to discover a Scheme of Thoughts traced out upon Matter"

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Thursday, July 3rd, 1712

"And here the Mind receives a great deal of Satisfaction, and has two of its Faculties gratified at the same time, while the Fancy is busy in copying after the Understanding, and transcribing Ideas out of the Intellectual World into the Material."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)