Date: 1790

"Their view calls off his attention from his own view; and his breast is, in some measure, becalmed the moment they come into his presence. This effect is produced instantaneously and, as it were, mechanically; but, with a weak man, it is not of long continuance."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1791

"I cannot allow any fragment whatever that floats in my memory concerning the great subject of this work to be lost."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: August 1817

"Whenever any object takes such a hold on the mind as to make us dwell upon it, and brood over it, melting the heart in love, or kindling it to a sentiment of admiration;--whenever a movement of imagination or passion is impressed on the mind, by which it seeks to prolong and repeat the emotion, ...

— Hazlitt, William (1778-1830)

Date: 1892, 1899

"The flowing life of the mind is sorted into parcels suitable for presentation in the recitation-room, and chopped up into supposed 'processes' with long Greek and Latin names, which in real life have no distinct existence."

— James, William (1842-1910)

Date: 1902

"Those traits which float like foam on the surface of a man's being should be put in this category."

— Spiller, Gustav (1864-1940)

Date: 1914

"I think with all his purity Emerson had within him the turbid stream of passion and desire; for all his hard-cut granite features he knew the instincts of the weakling and the slave; and for all his sweetness, he had the tiger and the jackal in his soul."

— de Cleyre, Voltairine (1866-1912)

Date: 2008

"There is tremendous precision and gentleness in the practice: the precision of noticing what is happending, the waterfall of thought; the gentleness of being nonjudgmental, not rejecting the busy mind. Over time, acknowledging that we are thinking and coming back to breath, the waterfall gradual...

— Barker, Phil

Date: 2008

"When people begin to practise mindfulness they are usually surprised to discover how busy the mind is: like a waterfall, one thought tumbling after the next."

— Barker, Phil

Date: May 18, 2015

"'I have to be totally still.' Ideas come floating up 'like a bubble in liquid.' At that point, he goes into an excitable motor state, pacing or scribbling down ideas."

— Colapinto, John (b. 1958)

Date: July 27, 2016

"But, gradually, I found myself caught up in the flow of the thing, gliding in my mind around every bend in the river, riding a raft with someone who knows where all the snags and sunken rocks of public life are."

— Pierce, Charles P. (b. 1953)