Date: Saturday, December 21, 1751

"The writer of essays escapes many embarrassments to which a large work would have exposed him; he seldom harasses his reason with long trains of consequences, dims his eyes with the perusal of antiquated volumes, or burthens his memory with great accumulations of preparatory knowledge."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Saturday, February 2, 1751

"Much of the beauty of writing is of this kind; and therefore Boileau justly remarks, that the books which have stood the test of time, and been admired through all the changes which the mind of man has suffered from the various revolutions of knowledge, and the prevalence of contrary customs, ha...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1751

"in consequence of which, he mustered up the ideas of his first passion, and set them in opposition to those of this new and dangerous attachment; by which means, he kept the balance in equilibrio, and his bosom tolerably quiet."

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

Date: 1751

The imagination may be "incessantly haunted" by the "apprehensions of a jail"

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

Date: 1751

Ideas of a love object with another lover may haunt the imagination

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

Date: Saturday, December 21, 1751

"A careless glance upon a favourite author, or transient survey of the varieties of life, is sufficient to supply the first hint or seminal idea, which, enlarged by the gradual accretion of matter stored in the mind, is by the warmth of fancy easily expanded into flowers, and sometimes ripened in...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, February 12, 1751

"There are many diseases both of the body and mind, which it is far easier to prevent than to cure, and therefore I hope you will think me employed in an office not useless either to learning or virtue, if I describe the symptoms of an intellectual malady, which, though at first it seizes only th...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, January 22, 1751

"It is certain, that, with or without our consent, many of the few moments allotted us will slide imperceptibly away, and that the mind will break, from confinement to its stated task, into sudden excursions."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, January 22, 1751

"But this invisible riot of the mind, this secret prodigality of being, is secure from detection, and fearless of reproach."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, January 22, 1751

"The infatuation strengthens by degrees, and like the poison of opiates, weakens his powers, without any external symptoms of malignity."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)