Date: 1786

"Those who feel in themselves the least propensity to this growing evil should carefully guard against its first approaches; for, like a gnawing vulture, it preys upon the mind; and, unless combated with all their resolution, steals imperceptibly on the disposition, and casts a veil over their fa...

— Anonymous

Date: 1786

"Add to this, that, whenever you sell the liberty of a man, you have the power only of alluding to the body: the mind cannot be confined or bound: it will be free, though its mansion be beset with chains."

— Clarkson, Thomas (1760–1846)

Date: 1786

"You confound their abilities by the severity of their servitude: for as a spark of fire, if crushed by too great a weight of incumbent fuel, cannot be blown into a flame, but suddenly expires, so the human mind, if depressed by rigorous servitude, cannot be excited to a display of those facultie...

— Clarkson, Thomas (1760–1846)

Date: 1786

"'Solitude,' added he one day, 'is dangerous to reason, without being favourable to virtue: pleasures of some sort are necessary to the intellectual as to the corporeal health; and those who resist gaiety will be likely for the most part to fall a sacrifice to appetite; for the solicitations of s...

— Piozzi, [née Salusbury; other married name Thrale] Hester Lynch (1741-1821)

Date: 1786

"'Remember,' concluded he, 'that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious, probably superstitious, and possibly mad: the mind stagnates for want of employment, grows morbid, and is extinguished like a candle in foul air.'"

— Piozzi, [née Salusbury; other married name Thrale] Hester Lynch (1741-1821)

Date: 1786

"From that awful period, almost every expectation is forlorn: the heart is left unguarded: its great protector is no more: the vices therefore, which so long encompassed it in vain, obtain an easy victory: in crouds they pour into the defenceless avenues, and take possession of the soul: there is...

— Clarkson, Thomas (1760–1846)

Date: 1786

"If at this recital his indignation should arise, let him consider it as the genuine production of nature; that she recoiled at the horrid thought, and that she applied instantly a torch to his breast to kindle his resentment."

— Clarkson, Thomas (1760–1846)

Date: 1786

"His poverty, his hapless helpless irremediable poverty he justly considers as the cause of this consummation of human woe! his mind is alternately torn with the passions of grief and despondence, when he sees even the probability extinguished of having his health re-established!"

— Nolan, William (fl. 1786)

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)