Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706
"Let any one examine his own Thoughts, and throughly search into his Understanding, and then let him tell me, Whether all the original Ideas he has there, are any other than of the Objects of his Senses, or of the Operations of his Mind, considered as Objects of his Reflection: and how great a ma...
preview | full record— Locke, John (1632-1704)
Date: 1698
"For, in case those Impressions on our Mind could have been made by means of the Senses, as aforesaid; then those Impressions, or Notions, being the Immediate Foundation, on which is built all our Knowledge, could not be call'd, or resembl'd to Rubbish; nor compar'd to a Hole, to lay the Foundati...
preview | full record— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)
Date: 1698
"When the Impression is made by the Object, and receiv'd into the Organ of Sense, it is convey'd from thence with the same Type or Character, by an Agitation of its Nervous Expansions and their continued Trunks, to the common Sensory."
preview | full record— Cowper [Cooper], William (1666/7-1710)
Date: Dated August 6, 1707; 1711
"The mind of man is at first (if you will pardon the expression) like a tabula rasa, or like wax, which, while it is soft, is capable of any impression, till time has hardened it."
preview | full record— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)
Date: Friday, August 1711
"This was a childish Amusement when I was carried away with outward Appearance, but you make a deeper Impression, and affect the secret Springs of the Mind; you charm the Fancy, sooth the Passions, and insensibly lead the Reader to that Sweetness of Temper that you so well describe; you rouse Gen...
preview | full record— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)
Date: Thursday, August 9, 1711
"Where Sovereigns have it [love of glory] by Impressions received from Education only, it creates an Ambitious rather than a Noble Mind; where it is the natural Bent of the Prince's Inclination, it prompts him to the Pursuit of Things truly Glorious."
preview | full record— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)
Date: 1713, 1734
"And that outward objects by the different impressions they make on the organs of sense, communicate certain vibrative motions to the nerves; and these being filled with spirits, propagate them to the brain or seat of the soul, which according to the various impressions or traces thereby made in ...
preview | full record— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)
Date: Jan 7 1712/13
"The Heart must be Tabula Rasa, white Paper to his Pen, soft Wax to his Seal: Let him write upon me what he pleaseth, and make what Impressions he pleaseth upon me."
preview | full record— Henry, Matthew (1662-1714)
Date: 1715
"THEN as to Correction, the Heart being hardned, as before, by Opinion and Practice, and especially in a Belief that he ought not to be corrected, the Rod of Correction has a different Effect; for as the Blow of a Stripe makes an Impression on the Heart of a Child, as stamping a Seal does upon th...
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: September 10, 1726
"To explain this, we must consider that the first Image which an outward Object imprints on our Brain is very slight; it resembles a thin Vapour which dwindles into nothing, without leaving the least track after it. But if the same Object successively offers itself several times, the Image it occ...
preview | full record— Arbuckle, James (d. 1742)