Date: 1734
"Speaking according to natural philosophers, 'tis a clear case, that wit is a generative power, and, if we may so say, becomes pregnant, and brings forth; moreover, as Plato affirms, wants a midwife to deliver her"
preview | full record— Huartes, John
Date: 1734
Wit "has the Power and natural force to produce and bring forth within it self a Son, which the natural Philosophers call NOTION, or Idea, or, as it has been accounted, the word of the spirit."
preview | full record— Huartes, John
Date: 1734
"And if it be said that the Understanding, which is but passive it self, like the bodily Eye, cannot be called the Leader of the rest of the Faculties; it must be granted, that (strictly speaking) it is rather the Light than the Guide: for if we consider it in the three Operations mention'd by th...
preview | full record— Forbes of Pitsligo, Alexander Forbes, Lord (1678-1762)
Date: May 6, 1736
"These first Characters therefore ought to be deeply and beautifully struck, and the Learning they express should be of great Price. And this, if timely Care be taken, may be done with ease because the Mind is then soft and tender: and because Truth and Right are by the nature of Things, as pleas...
preview | full record— Denne, John (1693-1767)
Date: 1737
"That man makes a mean figure in the eye of reason, who is measuring syllables and coupling rhimes, when he should be mending his own soul and securing his own immortality."
preview | full record— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Date: 1737, 1743
"Our Passions are like Convulsion-Fits, which, although they make us stronger for the time, leave us the weaker ever after."
preview | full record— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Date: 1737, 1743
"Superstition is the Spleen of the Soul."
preview | full record— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Date: 1737, 1743
"Wit in Conversation is only a readiness of thought and a facility of Expression, or (in the Midwives Phrase) a quick Conception and an easie Delivery."
preview | full record— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Date: 1737
"You see 'tis with weak heads as with weak stomachs, they immediately throw out what they received last; and what they read floats upon the surface of their mind, like oil upon water, without incorporating."
preview | full record— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Date: 1739-40
"The understanding, like the eye (says Mr. Locke), whilst it makes us see and perceive all other things, takes no notice of itself; and it requires art and pains to set it at a distance and make it its own object."
preview | full record— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)