Date: 1783

"That 'quickness in turning,' which the poet justly imagines to be essential to fine eyes, betokens in the mind a capacity of passing readily from one thought to another; an agreeable talent, when accompanied with good sense; and just the reverse of sullenness, inattention, and stupidity"

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1783

"The fruits of Sobriety are health, gladness, governable passions, clear discernment, rectitude of opinion, the esteem of others, and long life; which, with an approving conscience, are the greatest blessings here below, and, in all common cases, an effectual security against a diseased imaginati...

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1783

"The human brain is a bodily substance; and sensible and permanent impressions made upon it must so far resemble those made on sand by the foot, or on wax by the seal, as to have certain shape, length, breadth, and deepness"

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1783

"What toil and perseverance, in cultivating the bodily powers, must it require, to qualify the tumbler for those feats of activity, with which he astonishes mankind! [... ]Were we to take equal pains in the improvement of our intellectual and moral nature, which are surely not less susceptible of...

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1784

"The Author of this little Essay, very philanthropically, but he fears, very vainly, wishes, that some much abler Chymist of this kind than himself, could once compose and exhibit such an attractive, and palatable preservative against all infection of the mind, as might be greedily purchased and ...

— Anonymous

Date: 1785

"One cannot give too many or too frequent warnings against this laxity, or even mean cast of mind, which seeks its principle among empirical motives and laws; for,human reason in its weariness gladly rests on this pillow and in a dream of sweet illusions (which allow it to embrace a cloud instead...

— Kant, Immanuel (1724-1804)

Date: 1785

"To this it is owing, that, in ancient languages, the word which denotes the soul, is that which properly signifies breath or air."

— Reid, Thomas (1710-1796)

Date: 1785

"I saw in this nobleman the best dispositions and best principles; and I saw him, in my mind's eye, to be the representative of the ancient Boyds of Kilmarnock."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: 1786

"'Solitude,' added he one day, 'is dangerous to reason, without being favourable to virtue: pleasures of some sort are necessary to the intellectual as to the corporeal health; and those who resist gaiety will be likely for the most part to fall a sacrifice to appetite; for the solicitations of s...

— Piozzi, [née Salusbury; other married name Thrale] Hester Lynch (1741-1821)

Date: w. October 27, 1777, printed 1788

"In a man's letters, you know, Madam, his soul lies naked, his letters are only the mirror of his breast, whatever passes within him is shown undisguised in its natural process."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)