Date: 1764

Brave rage, a "grand master passion," may flame out for country

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

Date: 1764

"Mindful of that high rank in which I stand, / Of millions lord, sole ruler in the land, / Let me, and Reason shall her aid afford, / Rule my own spirit, of myself be lord."

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

Date: 1764

Philosophy may overturn Reason's throne and strive "proudly in its place to plant her own"

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

Date: 1764

Philosophy may be undermined, her empire thrown down, "By means of sense, from whom she holds the crown"

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

Date: 1764

"Like such a garden, when the human soul, / Uncultured, wild, impatient of control, / Brings forth those passions of luxuriant race, /Which spread, and stifle every herb of grace

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

Date: 1764

Virtue may wither on the bed she was born until Philosophy steps in and "clears the encumbered land" and "roots up every weed"

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

Date: 1764

"But behold, this soul of thought frequently has the ascendancy over the animal soul. The thinking soul orders its hands to grasp, and they grasp. It does not tell its heart to beat, its blood to run, its chyle to form; all these things happen without it: so here we have two perplexed souls which...

— Arouet, François-Marie [known as Voltaire] (1694-1778)

Date: 1764

"Nobody knows what really is the being called 'spirit', to which even you give the material name of 'spirit', which means wind."

— Arouet, François-Marie [known as Voltaire] (1694-1778)

Date: 1764

"The stars, who, by I know not what strange right, / Preside o'er mortals in their own despite, / Who, without reason, govern those who most / (How truly, judge from thence!) of reason boast, / And, by some mighty magic yet unknown, / Our actions guide, yet cannot guide their own."

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)

Date: 1764

Perception is "a kind of drama, wherein some things are performed behind the scenes, others are represented to the mind in different scenes, one succeeding the another"

— Reid, Thomas (1710-1796)