Date: 1760-7
"Honours, like impressions upon coin, may give an ideal and local value to a bit of base metal; but Gold and Silver will pass all the world over without any other recommendation than their own weight."
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: 1764
"Shall the winged Inhabitants of Air come tamely to the Hand that feeds them; and shall Man steel his Heart against all Impressions of Kindness, and all Sentiments of GRATITUDE?"
preview | full record— Gentleman, Francis (1728-1784)
Date: 1781
"Let matter then be allowed to furnish the first materials; the enlightened mind, which by its operations upon these discovers truth, and pursues it through all its distant connections, must have powers as far superiour to that which gave the first impression, as PHIDIAS is superiour to the marble."
preview | full record— Rotheram, John (1725–1789)
Date: 1788
"But in general, I know of no method of getting money, not even that of robbing for it upon the highway, which has so direct a tendency to efface the moral sense, to rob the heart of every gentle and humane disposition, and to harden it, like steel, against all impressions of sensibility."
preview | full record— Newton, John (1725-1807)
Date: 1788
""Ah! will you not there hear me? Will you still inhumanly smile; will you still look so gentle, while your heart is harder than the rocks we shall see--colder than the snow that crowns them!--an heart on which even the pen of fire which Rousseau held would make no impression!"
preview | full record— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)
Date: 1791
"In the rich realms of polished taste, / Where judgment penetrates to find / The treasures of the unwrought mind, / Where conversation's ardent spirit / Refines from dross the ore of merit, / Where emulation aids the flame / And stamps the sterling bust of fame."
preview | full record— West, Jane (1758-1852)