Date: 1767

"A Genius for Architecture truly ORIGINAL, will, by the native force and plastic power of Imagination, strike out for itself new and surprising Models in this Art; and, by its combining faculty, will select out of the infinite variety of ideal forms that float in the mind, those of the Grand and ...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"One obvious effect of it is, that it confines the attention to artificial rules, and ties the mind down to the observance of them, perhaps at the very time that the imagination is upon the stretch, and grasping at some idea astonishingly great, which however it is obliged, though with the utmost...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1773

"Even immediately after profound meditation, the mind being fatigued, indulges itself in roving, although the will oppose; we indeed continue to think, but our thoughts are altogether irregular; we remain awake, but experience the effects of sleep; imagination traces the same airy semblances, the...

— Marat, Jean-Paul (1743-1793)

Date: 1773

"It is therefore only by variously combining objects, by leaving (if I may be allowed the expression) the mind to rove at will, and by employing no more attention than is necessary to collect the result of its thoughts, and to select therefrom such as are for its purpose."

— Marat, Jean-Paul (1743-1793)

Date: 1774

"Imagination is still more inventive in all its other operations. It can lead us from a perception that is present, to the view of many more, and carry us through extensive, distant, and untrodden fields of thought. It can dart in an instant, from earth to heaven, and from heaven to earth; it can...

— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)

Date: 1774

"No sooner almost is a design formed, or the hint of a subject started, than all the ideas which are requisite for compleating it, rush into his view as if they were conjured up by the force of magic."

— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)

Date: 1774

"These latter have only one tie, but the former have a double relation, and will therefore rush into the thoughts with double violence."

— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)

Date: 1774

"No sooner does the imagination, in a moment of wandering, suggest any idea not conducive to the design, than the conception of this design breaks in of its own accord, and, like an antagonist muscle, counteracting the other association, draws us off to the view of a more proper idea."

— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)

Date: 1774

"As acuteness of smell carries a dog along the path of the game for which he searches, and secures him against the danger of quitting it, upon another scent: so this happy structure of imagination leads the man of genius into those tracks where the proper ideas lurk, and not only enables him to d...

— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)

Date: 1774

"There is in the human mind a strong propensity to make excursions; which may naturally be expected to exert itself most in those who have the greatest quickness and compass of imagination."

— Gerard, Alexander (1728-1795)