Date: 1736

"Upon the whole, then, our organs of sense and our limbs are certainly instruments which the living persons, ourselves, make use of to perceive and move with: there is not any probability that they are any more; nor consequently, that we have any other kind of relation to them, that what we may h...

— Butler, Joseph (1692-1752)

Date: 1737

"So many things freely thrown out, such lengths of unreserv'd friendship, thoughts just warm from the brain, without any polishing or dress, the very dishabille of the understanding."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737, 1743

"The best way to prove the clearness of our mind, is by shewing its Faults; as when a Stream discovers the Dirt at the bottom, it convinceth us of the transparency and purity of the Water."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737, 1743

"We should manage our Thoughts in composing a Poem, as Shepherds do their Flowers in making a Garland; first select the Choicest, and then dispose them in the most proper places, where they give a Lusture to each other: Like the Feathers in Indian Crowns, which are so managed that every one refle...

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1738

"I can know 'I' did something in the past despite this flux which may involve no residual particles that were part of the original system at the time of an event: Consciousness of having done an Action is an Idea imprinted on the Brain, by recollecting or bringing into View our Ideas before they ...

— Collins, Anthony (1676-1729)

Date: 1738

"Consciousness of having done an Action is an Idea imprinted on the Brain."

— Collins, Anthony (1676-1729)

Date: January 1739

"An idea assented to feels different from a fictitious idea, that the fancy alone presents to us: and this different feeling I endeavour to explain by calling it a superior force, or vivacity, or solidity, or firmness, or steadiness."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"On the appearance of such an object [the mind] awakes, as it were, from a dream; the blood flows with a new tide; the heart is elevated; and the whole man acquires a vigour which he cannot command in his solitary and calm moments."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"Ideas may be compared to the extension and solidity of matter and impressions, especially reflective ones, to colours, tastes, smells, and other sensible qualities."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

Personal identity may be like a "a noise, that is frequently interrupted and renew'd ... tho' 'tis evident the sounds have only a specific identity or resemblance, and there is nothing numerically the same, but the cause which produc'd them."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)