Date: 1786

"For, as the state of heat, in metallic substances, is the state wherein they are made capable to assume new or beautiful forms, so the state of affliction is the state to mould the human mind to every pursuit that is congenial to the dignity of its nature."

— Nolan, William (fl. 1786)

Date: 1786

"This conduct is not only inhuman, but impious in the highest degree; as at this awful tremendous moment, desponding fears and infidel doubts find an easy conquest of a mind, which, though not strengthened by Christian philosophy, is considerably weakened by disease."

— Nolan, William (fl. 1786)

Date: 1786

"I hope therefore the united motives of Christianity and humanity will animate every generous spark of benevolence in the mind of the governors, &c. (in which those virtues appeared to be suspended by suffering with impunity the abuses and neglects here complained of), and that they will accordin...

— Nolan, William (fl. 1786)

Date: 1787

"Architecture being one of the fine arts, and as such within the department of a professor of the college, according to the new arrangement, perhaps a spark may fall on some young subjects of natural taste, kindle up their genius, and produce a reformation in this elegant and useful art."

— Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826)

Date: 1787

"They [the Indians] will crayon out an animal, a plant, or a country, so as to prove the existence of a germ in their minds which only wants cultivation."

— Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826)

Date: 1787

"But his imagination [Ignatius Sancho's] is wild and extravagant, escapes incessantly from every restraint of reason and taste, and, in the course of its vagaries, leaves a tract of thought as incoherent and eccentric, as is the course of a meteor through the sky."

— Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826)

Date: 1787

"This will in some measure stop the increase of this great political and moral evil, while the minds of our citizens may be ripening for a complete emancipation of human nature."

— Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826)

Date: December 11, 1786; 1787

"A man endowed with this faculty, feels and acknowledges the truth, though it is not always in his power, perhaps, to give a reason for it; because he cannot recollect and bring present before him all the materials that gave birth to his opinion; for very many and very intricate considerations, m...

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: December 11, 1786; 1787

"If this be not done, the Artist may happen to impose on himself by partial reasoning, by a cold consideration of those animated first thoughts which proceeded, not perhaps from caprice or rashness (as he may afterwards conceit) but from the fullness of his mind, enriched with all the copious sto...

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: December 11, 1786; 1787

"A landskip thus conducted, under the influence of a Poetical mind, will have the same superiority over the more ordinary and common views, as Milton's Allegro and Penseroso have over a cold prosaic narration or description; and such a Picture would make a more forcible impression on the mind tha...

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)