Date: December 20, 1692; 1708

"I'm much concerned to hear you have your Health no better and, on this Occasion, cannot but deplore the great Losses the intellectual World, in all Ages, has suffer'd by, the strongest and soundest Minds possessing the most infirm and sickly Bodies. Certainly there must be some very powerful Cau...

— Molyneux, William (1656-1698)

Date: December 20, 1692; 1708

"As for his General Theory of them, I esteem it, as all others of this kind, a sort of mere waking Dream, that Men are strangely apt to fall into, when they think long of a Subject, beginning quite at the wrong End; for by framing such Conceits in their Fancies, they vainly think to give their Un...

— Molyneux, William (1656-1698)

Date: January 20, 1692/3; 1708

"But I perfectly agree with you concerning general Theories, that they are for the most part but a sort of waking Dreams, with which, when Men have warm'd their own Heads, they pass into unquestionable Truths, and then the ignorant World must be set right by them."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: January 25, 1698/9; 1708

"But the Truth is, my Thoughts never look towards Dublin now, without casting such a Cloud upon my Mind, and laying such a Load of fresh Sorrow on me for the Loss of my dear Friend, your Brother, that I cannot without Displeasure turn them that Way; and when I do it I find my self very unfit for ...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: September 6, 1695; 1708

"Mr. Molyneux's ingenious Question, of which you gave me an Account at Mr. Lukey's Yesterday, has run so much in my Mind ever since, that I could scarce drive it out of my Thoughts."

— Synge, Edward (1659-1741)

Date: September 6, 1695; 1708

"To be reveng'd on you therefore for putting my Brains into such a Ferment, I have resolved to be so impertinent as to send you the Result of my Meditations upon the Subject."

— Synge, Edward (1659-1741)

Date: 1709, 1714

"We polish one another, and rub off our Corners and rough Sides by a sort of amicable Collision. To restrain this, is inevitably to bring a Rust upon Mens Understandings."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1709, 1714

"The only Poison to Reason is Passion."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1709, 1714

"We may be charg'd perhaps with wilful Ignorance and blind Idolatry, for having taken Opinions upon Trust, and consecrated in our-selves certain Idol-Notion, which we will never suffer to be unveil'd, or seen in open light."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1709, 1714

"They may perhaps be Monsters, and not Divinitys, or Sacred Truths, which are kept thus choicely, in some dark Corner of our Minds: The Specters may impose on us, whilst we refuse to turn 'em every way, and view their Shapes and Complexions in every light."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)