Date: January, 1730

"There are in all Souls, (not perfect Ideots,) as in the midst of clos'd-up flowers, some seeds of knowledge and science, which never disclose and shew themselves, till the quick'ning sunshine of learning and education open the understanding, and discover those hidden seeds of natural knowledge, ...

— Anonymous

Date: 1730

"This would effectually kill in us all the little seeds of pride, vanity and self-conceit, which are apt to shoot up in the minds of such whose thoughts turn more on those comparative advantages which they enjoy over some of their fellow-creatures, than on that infinite distance which is placed b...

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: 1731

"[F]or since the Mind and Intellect is in it self a more real and substantial Thing, and fuller of Entity than Matter and Body, those Things which are the pure Offspring of the Mind, and sprout from the Soul it self, must needs be more real and substantial than those Things which blossom from the...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1732

"You must know, said he, that the mind of man may be fitly compared to a piece of land. What stubbing, ploughing, digging, and harrowing is to the one, that thinking, reflecting, examining is to the other."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1732

"Each hath its proper culture; and as land that is suffered to lie waste and wild for a long tract of time will be overspread with brushwood, brambles, thorns, and such vegetables which have neither use nor beauty; even so there will not fail to sprout up in a neglected, uncultivated mind, a grea...

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1732

"Represent to yourself the man of mind, or human nature in general, that for so many ages had lain obnoxious to the frauds of designing, and the follies of weak men; how it must be overrun with prejudices and errors, what firm and deep roots they must have taken, and consequently how difficult a ...

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1732

"On the other hand, those who duly employ their faculties in the search of truth, take especial care to weed out of their minds, and extirpate all such notions or prejudices as were planted in them before they arrived at the free and entire use of reason."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1732

"You have rooted up a world of notions: I should be glad to see what fine things you have planted in their stead."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1732

"Have patience, good Euphranor. I will show you in the first place, that whatever was sound and good we leave untouched, and encourage it to grow in the mind of man. And secondly, I will show you what excellent things we have planted in it."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1732

"And suppose that in man, after a certain season, the appetite of lust or the faculty of reason shall shoot forth, open, and display themselves as leaves and blossoms do in a tree; would you therefore deny them to be natural to him, because they did not appear in his original infancy?"

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)