Date: 1789

"A river may as soon be made to flow back to its fountain, as volitions can be exempted from the necessitating influence of motives."

— Belsham, William (1752-1827)

Date: 1789

"[I]t follows that motives, volitions, and actions, are all the definite effects of definite causes, and that they are all links of that // ---- "golden everlasting chain, / Whose strong embrace holds heaven, and earth, and main."

— Belsham, William (1752-1827)

Date: 1789

"But if it means the mental energy preceding and producing volition, it is then plainly equivalent to the term motive, and the question is reduced to a mere verbal controversy; for this mental energy, denoting only a particular disposition and state of mind, must itself have resulted from a previ...

— Belsham, William (1752-1827)

Date: 1789, 1797

"Ah, say, deluded Maid, / Would you, whose mind is pure as winter's snow, / Assort with one distain'd by foulest guilt, / Whose nightly rest the murther'd sprites would break."

— Berkeley, George Monck (1763-1793)

Date: 1789, 1797

"Each motive base it [the soul] nobly spurns, / And bright with purest passion burns."

— Berkeley, George Monck (1763-1793)

Date: 1789, 1797

"Still in this breast shall dearest Emma reign, / Nor e'er my will your virgin choice shall sway."

— Berkeley, George Monck (1763-1793)

Date: w. January 24, 1789

"Reason drops headlong from his sacred throne."

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

Date: w. January 24, 1789

"Your dear idea reigns, and reigns alone; / Each thought intoxicated homage yields, / And riots wanton in forbidden fields."

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

Date: 1789, 1800

"On his one ruling passion Sir Pope hugely labors, / That, like th'old Hebrew walking-switch, eats up its neighbours."

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)

Date: 1789, 1800

"Human Nature's his show-box--your friend, would you know him? / Pull the string, Ruling Passion--the picture will show him."

— Burns, Robert (1759-1796)