Date: 1765

"There is the question whether the soul in itself is completely blank like a writing tablet on which nothing has as yet been written--a tabula rasa--as Aristotle and the author of the Essay maintain, and whether everything which is inscribed there comes solely from the senses and ex...

— Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)

Date: 1765

"Modern philosophers give them other fine names and Julius Scaliger, in particular, used to call them "seeds of eternity" and also "zopyra"--meaning living fires or flashes of light hidden inside us but made visible by stimulation of the senses, as sparks can be struck by steel."

— Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)

Date: 1765

"I have also used the analogy of a veined block of marble, as opposed to an entirely homogenous block of marble, or to a blank tablet--what the philosophers call a tabula rasa"

— Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)

Date: 1765

"That is, a sentient or thinking being is not a mechanical thing like a watch or a mill: one cannot conceive of sizes and shapes and motions combining mechanically to produce something which thinks, and senses too, in a mass where [formerly] there was nothing of the kind--something which would li...

— Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)

Date: 1765

"Nature has stamped an original impression on certain minds, which Education may greatly alter or efface, but seldom so entirely as to prevent its traces being seen by an accurate observer."

— Gregory, John (1724-1773)

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."

— Anonymous

Date: 1765

"A sick Person has usually Confidence in his Physician, credits what is told him, and uses what is prescribed; but an immoral Man seldom believes that his Mind is sick, slights his Doctor, and applies not the proper Remedies."

— Anonymous

Date: 1765

"A Man's House may be so fill'd with Furniture, that he shall want Room to stir; and a Man's Head may be so stuff'd with other People's Thoughts, that his own shall be stifled."

— Anonymous

Date: 1765

"Fancy and Wisdom seldom go together, nor are the Fruits of the same Soil or Season."

— Anonymous

Date: 1765

"Never make a Friend on a sudden, for though the first Affection makes the deepest Impression, yet that Love is held most permanent which dives into the Soul by soft Degrees of mutual Society, and comes to be matured by Time."

— Anonymous