Date: 1779

"A man's natural inclination works incessantly upon him ... The force of the greatest gravity, say the philosophers, is infinitely small, in comparison of that of the least impulse: yet it is certain, that the smallest gravity will, in the end, prevail above a great impulse; because no strokes or...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1779

"Let me exhort ye then to open the locks of your hearts with the nail of repentance: burst asunder the fetters of your beloved lusts, mount the chimney of hope, take from hence the bar of good resolution, break through the stone wall of despair, and all the strong holds in the dark entry of the v...

— Anonymous

Date: November 9, 1779

"Thus, conscience freed from ev'ry clog, / Mahometans eat up the hog."

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: December 10, 1778; 1779

"Novelty makes a more forcible impression on the mind, than can be done by representation of what we have often seen before; and contrasts rouse the power of comparison by opposition."

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: December 10, 1778; 1779

"Where all is novelty, the attention, the exercise of the mind is too violent."

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: August, September, and October, 1779

"Thus it happened with me on the present occasion; and I found my ideas suddenly drawn from the sermon in my hand and (in their vagabond way) hurrying over the birth, parentage, education, and situation of the reverend penman."

— Anonymous

Date: August, September, and October, 1779

"At his entrance, his little deal desk mounted on his only table, stood invitingly before him: there was inspiration in the sight; he snatched wildly a cracked ink-horn from a shelf which contained nothing else, but a few mouldy crusts, and a few mouldy books; flourished his pen, looked up a mome...

— Anonymous

Date: 1779

"My mind's in equipoise, ready alike / To hold thee as my Lover, or my Foe!"

— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)

Date: 1779

"Come, come, Albina; / Though to a Lover you might wear this guise, / Of coy reserve, yet, to a Father's eye, / Your mind should now appear as legible / As in the days of prattling infancy."

— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)

Date: 1779

"Ambition! thou whose hallow'd flame can live / Only in minds refin'd from the gross elements / Of which the herd of human kind are made!"

— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)