Date: 1777

"The consciousness of what I mean by this letter to reveal, hangs like guilt upon my mind; therefore it is that I have so long delayed writing."

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1777

"Savillon's family, indeed, was not so noble as his mind; my father warmly acknowledged the excellence of the last; but he had been taught, from earliest infancy, to consider a misfortune the want of the former."

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1777

"Images of vengeance and destruction paint themselves to my mind, when I think of his discovering that weakness which I cannot hide from myself."

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1777

"Hide me, my friend, from the consciousness of my folly, or let it speak till its expiation be made, till I have banished Savillon from my mind ... Must I then banish him from my mind?"

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1777

"Your mind, child, (continued my mother) is too tender; I fear it is, for this bad world."

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1777

"These words cannot be forgotten! they press upon my mind with the sacredness of a parent's dying instructions!"

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1777

"That they are commonly vanquished by an effort to vanquish them; and that the sinking under their pressure, is one of those diseases of the mind, which, like certain diseases of the body, the exercise of its better faculties will very soon remove."

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1777

"My father did not then perceive this; it was not till he waited on Montauban, that the force of it struck his mind."

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1777

"If they say, that affection is a mere involuntary impulse, neither waiting the decisions of reason, or the dissuasive of prudence, do they not in reality degrade us to machines, which are blindly actuated by some uncontrollable power?"

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)

Date: 1777

"If you marry a man of a certain sort, such as the romance of young minds generally paints for a husband, you will deride the supposition of any possible decrease in the ardour of your affections."

— Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831)