Date: 1785

Hearts may scarce yield to impression while "The daughter's can soften and melt"

— Lovibond, Edward (bap. 1723, d. 1775)

Date: 1785

"Rules for rendering the Mind a tabula rasa, on which the hand of Nature is to write by observation and experiments: and for expelling the prejudices, which have retarded the progress of the useful Sciences and Arts."

— Bruce, John (1745-1826)

Date: 1785

"Sir, Dr Cheyne has laid down a rule to himself on this subject, which should be imprinted on every mind: 'To neglect nothing to secure my eternal peace, more than if I had been certified I should die within the day: nor to mind any thing that my secular obligations and duties demanded of me, les...

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: 1786

"But your humanity must ever be engraved on my heart."

— Inchbald [née Simpson], Elizabeth (1753-1821)

Date: 1786

"Our minds are like blank paper, as a great philosopher has observed, and the first impressions they receive are generally the most permanent and powerful."

— Anonymous

Date: 1787

"That frequently happens; and when once a false idea is impressed, it is very difficult to erase it, particularly at your age; as you are not yet capable of distinguishing the false from the true."

— Louise Florence Pétronille Tardieu d'Ésclavelles Épinay (marquise d') (1726-1783)

Date: 1787

"They converse not, they open not their mouths, they are silent, but they engrave their principles on the heart in indelible characters, instead of inconsistently crowding them on the memory."

— Louise Florence Pétronille Tardieu d'Ésclavelles Épinay (marquise d') (1726-1783)

Date: 1788

"Well-tutor'd Learning, from his books / Dismiss'd with grave, not haughty looks, / Their order on his shelves exact, / Not more harmonious or compact / Than that, to which he keeps confined / The various treasures of his mind."

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1788-89

"According to Mr. Locke, the soul is a mere rasa tabula, an empty recipient, a mechanical blank."

— Taylor, Thomas (1758-1835)

Date: 1788-89

"According to Plato, she [the soul] is an ever-written tablet, a plenitude of forms, a vital and intellectual energy."

— Taylor, Thomas (1758-1835)