Date: 1759

"By degrees the reign of fancy is confirmed; she grows first imperious, and in time despotick."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1759

"Imlac was delighted to find that the sage's understanding was breaking through its mists, and resolved to detain him from the planets till he should forget his task of ruling them, and reason should recover its original influence."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1759

"From the very kind and warm Expressions of fatherly Fondness in this Letter, a small Ray of Hope darted into Lady Dellwyn's Mind."

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768)

Date: 1759

"This [her own Mind] being haunted with Ghosts, dejected with an unaccountable Melancholy, and afflicted with a Variety of Distempers, tho' we are at a Loss to discover what Appellation to give them, is very often the Result of nothing more than a strong Imagination unimployed, which could be all...

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768)

Date: 1759

"Their grief, however, like their joy, was transient; every thing floated in their mind unconnected with the past or future, so that one desire easily gave way to another, as a second stone cast into the water effaces and confounds the circles of the first."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1760

"I was telling you, my dear friend (said she) for so I shall ever call you from this moment, your kindness having compleated the conquest which your beauty had before made of my heart, I was telling you, that I was going to visit a family this morning, where I promised myself the highest joy that...

— Johnstone, Charles (c.1719-c.1800)

Date: 1760

"I found the spirit very busy, though I thought somewhat odly employed: she was running over a number of niches, or impressions, on the fibres of the brain, some of which I observed she renewed with such force, that she almost effaced others, which she passed over untouched, though interspersed a...

— Johnstone, Charles (c.1719-c.1800)

Date: 1760

"Upon this I mounted into the censorium of his brain, to learn from the spirit of consciousness, which you call self, the cause of so uncommon a change, as it is contrary to the fundamental rules of our order, ever to give up an heart of which we once get possession."

— Johnstone, Charles (c.1719-c.1800)

Date: 1760

"(I see you wonder, that I speak of this spirit [personified consciousness], though the self of a man, as if it was a female; but in this there is a mystery; every spirit is of both sexes, but as the female is the worthier with us, we take our denomination from that.)"

— Johnstone, Charles (c.1719-c.1800)

Date: 1760

"This place, where we are, is the seat of memory; and these traces, which you see me running over thus, are the impressions made on the brain by a communication of the impressions made on the senses by external objects."

— Johnstone, Charles (c.1719-c.1800)