Date: Tuesday, August 14, 1753
"But from the opposite errour, from torpid despondency, can come no advantage; it is the frost of the soul, which binds up all its powers, and congeals life in perpetual sterility."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1755
"But where the Heart is PARTIALLY ENGAGED, we have frequent Instances of its clouding the Understanding, and MAKING DUPES OF THE WISEST."
preview | full record— Charke [née Cibber; other married name Sacheverell], Charlotte [alias Mr Brown] (1713-1760)
Date: 1755
"THE SHOCK OF RECEIVING MY OWN LETTER did not excite a sudden Gust of unwarrantable Passion, but prey'd upon my Heart with the slow and eating Fire of Distraction and Despair, 'till it ended in a Fever, which now remains upon my Spirits; and which, I fear, I shall find a difficult Task to overcome."
preview | full record— Charke [née Cibber; other married name Sacheverell], Charlotte [alias Mr Brown] (1713-1760)
Date: 1757
"The tossing of the sea remains after the storm; and when this remain of horror has entirely subsided, all the passion, which the accident raised, subsides along with it; and the mind returns to its usual state of indifference"
preview | full record— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)
Date: 1758
"As you would not wish to sail in a large, and finely decorated, and gilded Ship, and sink: so neither is it eligible to inhabit a grand and sumptuous House, and be in a Storm [of Passions and Cares]."
preview | full record— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)
Date: 1762
"Je méditois donc sur le triste sort des mortels flottant sur cette mer des opinions humaines, sans gouvernail, sans boussole, & livrés à leurs passions orageuses, sans autre guide qu’un pilote inexpérimenté qui méconnaît sa route, & qui ne sait ni d’où il vient ni où il va."
preview | full record— Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712-1778)
Date: 1760-1761, 1762
"Those storms may discompose in proportion as they are strong, or the mind is pliant to their impression."
preview | full record— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)
Date: 1760-1761, 1762
"YOUR last letters betray a mind seemingly fond of wisdom, yet tempested up by a thousand various passions."
preview | full record— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)
Date: 1764
"Nobody knows what really is the being called 'spirit', to which even you give the material name of 'spirit', which means wind."
preview | full record— Arouet, François-Marie [known as Voltaire] (1694-1778)
Date: 1765
"Religion is exalted Reason, refin'd and sifted from the grosser Parts of it; It dwells in the upper Region of the Mind, where there are fewest Clouds or Mists to darken or offend it."
preview | full record— Anonymous