Date: 1790

"But while those ancient philosophers endeavoured in this manner to suggest every consideration which could, as Milton says, arm the obdured breast with stubborn patience, as with triple steel; they, at the same time, laboured above all to convince their followers that there neither was nor could...

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: December 10, 1790; 1791

"As a confirmation of its great excellence, and of the impression which it leaves on the minds of elegant spectators, our great Lyric Poet, when he conceived that sublime idea of the indignant Welch Bard, acknowledged that though many years had intervened, he had warmed his imagination with the r...

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: December 10, 1790; 1791

"But I am sure that mechanic excellence invigorated and emboldened his mind to carry Painting into the regions of Poetry, and to emulate that Art in its most adventurous flights."

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: December 10, 1790; 1791

"The sublime in Painting, as in Poetry, so overpowers, and takes such a possession of the whole mind, that no room is left for attention to minute criticism."

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: December 10, 1790; 1791

"It is an absurdity therefore to suppose we are born with this taste, though we are with the seeds of it, which by the heat and kindly influence of his genius, may be ripened in us."

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: December 10, 1790; 1791

"When the Student has been habituated to this grand conception of the Art, when the relish for this stile is established, makes a part of himself, and is woven into his mind, he will, by this time, have got a power of selecting from whatever occurs in nature that is grand, and corresponds with th...

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: 1794

"Emporium, a market-town; but metaphorically applied to the brain, which is the seat of all rational and sensitive transaction."

— Quincy, John (d. 1722)