Date: 1731

"It must needs follow from hence, that Knowledge is an Inward and Active Energy of the Mind it self, and the displaying of its own Innate Vigour from within, whereby it doth Conquer, Master and Command its Objects, and so begets a Clear, Serene, Victorious, and Satisfactory Sense within it self."

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1733

"It seems to me absolutely impossible, without such a Help, to keep the Mind easy, and prevent its wearing out the Body, as the Sword does the Scabbard; it is no matter what it is, provided it be but a Hobby-Horse, and an Amusement, and stop the Current Reflexion and intense Thinking, which Perso...

— Cheyne, George (1671-1743)

Date: 1734

"'Tis generally in favour of the Senses that the Passions are exerted; these are alarm'd and rise in arms, when our Pleasures are in danger."

— Forbes of Pitsligo, Alexander Forbes, Lord (1678-1762)

Date: January 1739

"Here then is the only expedient, from which we can hope for success in our philosophical researches, to leave the tedious lingering method, which we have hitherto followed, and instead of taking now and then a castle or village on the frontier, to march up directly to the capital or center of th...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"Nothing is more usual in philosophy, and even in common life, than to talk of the combat of passion and reason, to give the preference to reason, and assert that men are only so far virtuous as they conform themselves to its dictates."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: January 1739

"We speak not strictly and philosophically, when we talk of the combat of passion and of reason."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1741

"But such is the nature of the human mind, that it always lays hold on every mind that approaches it; and as it is wonderfully fortified by an unanimity of sentiments, so is it shocked and disturbed by any contrariety."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1742

"The soul, thus free from passions, is a strong fort; nor can a man find any stronger, to which he can fly, and become invincible for the future."

— Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180), Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746), and James Moor (bap. 1712, d. 1779)

Date: 1745

"And therefore his suffering himself notwithstanding to be governed by them, shows that he hath too much neglected or misapplied his natural talent, and willingly submitted to the tyranny of those lusts and passions, over which nature had furnished him with abilities to have secured an easy conqu...

— Mason, John (1706-1763)

Date: 1748

"There is nothing more certain, that that there are two Kinds of Conviction, one flowing from a sudden and violent breaking-in of Truth, when the Understanding is as it were taken by Storm, and a Man's whole System of Thinking is changed in an Instant: the other a gradual, gentle, and slow steali...

— Anonymous; [Lyttleton]