Date: 1774

"It is a very old and very true maxim, that those kings reign the most secure and the most absolute, who reign in the hearts of their people."

— Stanhope, Philip Dormer, fourth earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)

Date: 1774

"Vanity is unquestionably the ruling passion in women; and it is much flattered by the attentions of a man who is generally esteemed by men; when his merit has received the stamp of their approbation, women make it current, that is to say, put him in fashion."

— Stanhope, Philip Dormer, fourth earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)

Date: 1777, 1793

"Light sits my bosom's Master on his throne; / Airy and disencumber'd feels my Soul."

— Dodd, William (1729-1777)

Date: 1777

"Lord Melvile had courage to persevere in advancing, though Dorignon's idea perpetually obtruded itself on his imagination; the charms of her form indeed were not such as justified his infatuation; she was, in respect to personal attractions, much below mediocrity; but her sprightly sallies, her ...

— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)

Date: 1777

"His heart, for a moment, revolted at the idea of seduction; but he soon silenced the unwelcome monitor."

— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)

Date: w. c. 1779

"[T]hen prudence took her Seat / Within the Soul, and reign'd in Virtue's room."

— Crabbe, George (1754-1832)

Date: 1780

"Hast thou no failings of thine own, / No ruling passion in thy breast, / That robs thee of thy balmy rest?"

— Anstey, Christopher (1724-1805)

Date: 1779, 1781

"This doctrine is in itself pernicious as well as false; its tendency is to produce the belief of a kind of moral predestination or overruling principle which cannot be resisted: he that admits it is prepared to comply with every desire that caprice or opportunity shall excite, and to flatter him...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1781

"That he sold so valuable a performance for so small a price, was not to be imputed either to necessity, by which the learned and ingenious are often obliged to submit to very hard conditions, or to avarice, by which the booksellers are frequently incited to oppress that genius by which they are ...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1781

"It cannot be said that he made use of his abilities for the direction of his own conduct: an irregular and dissipated manner of life had made him the slave of every passion that happened to be excited by the presence of its object, and that slavery to his passions reciprocally produced a life ir...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)