Date: 1751, 1777

"The roughness and harshness of these emotions disturb and displease us: We suffer by contagion and sympathy; nor can we remain indifferent spectators, even though certain, that no pernicious consequences would ever follow from such angry passions."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1751, 1777

"Who sees not that vengeance, from the force alone of passion, may be so eagerly pursued, as to make us knowingly neglect every consideration of ease, interest, or safety; and, like some vindictive animals, infuse our very souls into the wounds we give an enemy?"

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1751

"Nothing conduces so much to improve the mind, and confirm it in virtue, as being continually employed in surveying the actions of others, entering into the concerns of the virtuous, approving of their conduct, condemning vice, and showing an abhorrence at it; for the mind acquires strength by ex...

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1751

"As I discover power in external objects, by the eye, so I discover power in my mind, by an internal sense."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1751

"The mind is like the eye. It cannot take in an object that is very great or very little."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: January 3, 1750-51, 1807

"He may confine their bodies; but the free soul will be out of his power, which only love and gratitude can bind."

— Mulso [later Chapone], Hester (1727-1801)

Date: Tuesday, March 12, 1751

"Curiosity is the thirst of the soul; it inflames and torments us, and makes us taste every thing with joy, however otherwise insipid, by which it may be quenched."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Saturday, March 16, 1751

"[B]ut the mind once habituated to the lusciousness of eulogy, becomes, in a short time, nice and fastidious, and, like a vitiated palate, is incessantly calling for higher gratifications."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Saturday, April 6, 1751

"Austerity is the proper antidote to indulgence; the diseases of mind as well as body are cured by contraries, and to contraries we should readily have recourse, if we dreaded guilt as we dread pain."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, November 1751

"As any action or posture, long continued, will distort and disfigure the limbs; so the mind likewise is crippled and contracted by perpetual application to the same set of ideas."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)