Date: 1779, 1781

"The variable weather of the mind, the flying vapours of incipient madness, which from time to time cloud reason, without eclipsing it, it requires so much nicety to exhibit, that Addison seems to have been deterred from prosecuting his own design."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1779, 1781

"The man that sits down to suppose himself charged with treason or peculation, and heats his mind to an elaborate purgation of his character from crimes which he was never within the possibility of committing, differs only by the infrequency of his folly from him who praises beauty which he never...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1779, 1781

"His strength always appears in his agility; his volatility is not the flutter of a light, but the bound of an elastick mind."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1779, 1781

"The heat of Milton's mind might be said to sublimate his learning, to throw off into his work the spirit of science, unmingled with its grosser parts."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1779, 1781

"An accumulation of knowledge impregnated his mind, fermented by study and exalted by imagination."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1780, 1781, 1788

"Two passions there by soft contention please, / The love of martial Fame, and learned Ease: / These friendly colours, exquisitely join'd, / Form the enchanting picture of thy mind."

— Hayley, William (1745-1820)

Date: 1780

"Thy mind expanded to her empire's bound; / There every Science a firm station found."

— Hayley, William (1745-1820)

Date: 1780

"But O! how rare benignant Virtue springs / In the blank bosom of despotic kings!"

— Hayley, William (1745-1820)

Date: 1780

"The face is certainly the best index of the mind, and the passions as forcibly expressed by the features as by the words and gesture of the performer."

— Francklin, Thomas (1721–1784); Lucian (b.c. 125, d. after 180)

Date: 1780

"The mind, in my opinion, of every well-disposed man, is like a soft mark, or butt; many are the archers in this life, with their quivers full of speeches of every kind; but few amongst them aim aright: some stretch the cord too tight, and the arrow, sent forth with more force than is necessary, ...

— Francklin, Thomas (1721–1784); Lucian (b.c. 125, d. after 180)