Date: April, 1778

"Cicero, upon whose mind the advancing rays of celestial philosophy beamed with a brightness very admirable in a Pagan period of time, before the Sun of Righteousness arose, and shone forth in full splendour upon the world, informs us, in his Tusculan Questions, of a very remarkable interview bet...

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: April, 1778

"The sound of the mind we hear; but what it is we cannot tell. The music which it utters, its melody, its harmony, its discord, its variety of notes, have been written by Shakespeare with a wonderful degree of perfection, so as to be themselves to every cultivated reader. We have even gamuts and ...

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: April, 1778

"How then can we represent, by a sensible image, the mind as a theatre to its own actings? Let us conceive a spacious saloon, in which our thoughts and passions exert themselves, and let its walls be encrusted with mirrour, for the purpose of reflection, in the same manner that rooms in voluptuou...

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: April, 1778

"A Hypochondriack Preacher, would, I am sensible, be an anomalous character; for whatever part of his sermon should appear not quite intelligible, or at all unpleasant to his auditors, they might very fairly, though perhaps not very justly impute to the gloomy disease of his mind."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: April, 1778

"Were the grand idea of the theatre of conscience in its full extant, and with all its enjoyments to be constantly in our contemplation, we should not forfeit the higher approbation of ourselves, who are really judges for the paultry, inattentive, and transient plaudits of others."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: 1778

"The mind of man has been by some authors called a tabula rasa, and compared to a sheet of clean paper."

— Author Unknown

Date: 1778

"One should imagine, that the human intellect, by its original constitution, easily admits and retains some impressions, as congenial to its nature, and faithful to their objects; whilst it repels others with aversion or disdain, as subversive of its happiness, and false to the things which they ...

— Author Unknown

Date: 1778

"Hence our frame, from its very origin, seems marked by the hand of nature with indubitable signatures of pre-eminence and distinction."

— Author Unknown

Date: April, 1778

"That the merited applause of mankind is highly valuable, and a great immediate incitement to act well, I certainly agree: and therefore to return to the image of the mind as a theatre, I would not have it close as an amphitheatre; but open to the inspection of the world."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: 1779

"All our ideas derived from the senses are confusedly false and illusive; and cannot therefore be supposed to have place in a supreme intelligence: and as the ideas of internal sentiment, added to those of the external senses, compose the whole furniture of human understanding, we may conc...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)