Date: 1790
"In proportion to the degree of the self-command which is necessary in order to conquer our natural sensibility, the pleasure and pride of the conquest are so much the greater; and this pleasure and pride are so great that no man can be altogether unhappy who completely enjoys them."
preview | full record— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)
Date: 1790
"But the contest between the two principles, the warfare within the breast, may be too violent to be at all consistent with internal tranquillity and happiness."
preview | full record— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)
Date: 1790?
"Be careful, greatly careful, my dear child, that familiarity with the sight, does not make you grow indifferent to the consequences of such actions, and so tempt you to partake of the guilt: but let the advice contained in the following sheets sink deep into your mind, and be a shield to defend ...
preview | full record— Kilner, Dorothy (1755-1836)
Date: 1791
"In short, it must not be concealed, that like many other good and pious men, amongst whom we may place the Apostle Paul, upon his own authority, Johnson was not free from propensities which were ever 'warring against the law of his mind,'--and that in his combats with them, he was sometimes over...
preview | full record— Boswell, James (1740-1795)
Date: 1793
"If considerations of inferior note be apt to mislead the mind, what shall we think of this most intoxicating draught, of a condition superior to restraint, stripped of all those accidents and vicissitudes from which the morality of human beings has flowed, with no salutary check, with no intelle...
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Date: 1793
"Every time the mind is invaded with anguish and gloom, the frame becomes disordered"
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Date: 1793
"We must sharpen our intellectual weapons; add to the stock of our knowledge; be pervaded with a sense of the magnitude of our cause; and perpetually increase that calm presence of mind and self possession which must enable us to do justice to our principles."
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Date: 1796
"Camilla remained in a state of accumulated distress, that knew not upon what object most to dwell: her father, shocked and irritated beyond the mild endurance of his character; her brother, wantonly sporting with his family's honour, and his own morals and reputation; her uncle, preparing for nu...
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1796
"The speeches of the unsuspicious Eugenia, that a moment before would have past unheeded, now regaled her renovated fancy with a thousand amusing images, which so vigorously struggled against her sadness and her terrors, that they were soon nearly driven from the field by their sportive assailant...
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1797
"The impression becomes deeper; not in consequence of being reinforced by fresh arguments, but merely by dint of having longer rested in the mind; and as they [doubts] increase in force, they creep on and extend themselves. At length they diffuse themselves over the whole of Religion, and possess...
preview | full record— Wilberforce, William (1759-1833)