Date: 1776

"It is not more evident that the imagination is more strongly affected by things sensible than by things intelligible, than it is evident that things animate awaken greater attention, and make a stronger impression on the mind than things senseless."

— Campbell, George (1719-1796)

Date: 1776

"It is sufficient that such things be hinted to the understanding, so that the meaning may be apprehended, it is by no means fit that they be painted in the liveliest colours to the fancy."

— Campbell, George (1719-1796)

Date: 1776

"But who that has the least spark of imagination, sees not how languid the latter expression is, when compared with the former."

— Campbell, George (1719-1796)

Date: 1776

"You will thus convert a piece of abstruse reflexion, which, however just, makes but a slender impression upon the mind, into the most affecting and instructive imagery."

— Campbell, George (1719-1796)

Date: 1776

"And yet the Percipient cannot restrain the whole Interiour Correspondent System from striking at all; so as to cause Universal Stillness in the Cranium, (unless perhaps for a mere Moment;) because it must intend it at least; and Intending implies Thinking; and Thinking, Pulsation:--So that to ta...

— Applegarth, Robert (fl. 1776)

Date: 1776

"Being chosen by Vulcan, Neptune and Minerva, to give his judgment concerning their works, he blamed them all; Neptune for not making his bull with horns before his eyes; Minerva for building a house that could not be removed in case of bad neighbours; and Vulcan for making a man without a window...

— Noorthouck, John (1746?-1816)

Date: December 10, 1776; 1777

"But I am persuaded, that scarce a poet is to be found, from Homer down to Dryden, who preserved a sound mind in a sound body, and continued practising his profession to the very last, whose later works are not as replete with the fire of imagination, as those which were produced in...

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: December 10, 1776; 1777

"To understand literally these metaphors or ideas expressed in poetical language, seems to be equally absurd as to conclude, that because painters sometimes represent poets writing from the dictates of a little winged boy or genius, that this same genius did really inform him in a whisper what he...

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: December 10, 1776; 1777

"The natural appetite or taste of the human mind is for Truth; whether that truth results from the real agreement or equality of original ideas among themselves; from the agreement of the representation of any object with the thing represented; or from the correspondence of the several parts of a...

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: June 27, 2025

"Quite often the thing that people respond to in my books is the train – the train wreck – of thought."

— Dyer, Geoff (b. 1958)