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.'"
preview | full record— 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...
preview | full record— 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."
preview | full record— 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!"
preview | full record— 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."
preview | full record— 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."
preview | full record— 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...
preview | full record— 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."
preview | full record— 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."
preview | full record— 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."
preview | full record— Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826)