Date: November 4, 1672, 1673
"Thou Live, and yet speak against Drinking, the very thing that distinguishes the Life of Man from that of a Beast! Why, 'tis the onely Spur of Wit and Reason; I have heard more new thoughts in Drinking three hours, then the best Modern Play can furnish you with; Therefore if thou would'st Live, ...
preview | full record— Payne, Henry [alias Henry Nevill] (d. 1705?)
Date: 1698
"Nay, such Gentlemen would be much offended their Houses should not be clean Swept, and Garnish'd; yet, they are not, in the least, concern'd, that Cobwebs should hang in the Windows of their Intellect, and Dusty Ignorance dim and blear the Sight of the Noble Inhabitant."
preview | full record— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)
Date: 1698
"The First Step we take into our Inmost Thoughts, we meet with and discover these Primary Truths: whose Self-Evidence is the Earliest Light that dawns to our Soul, as soon as over her Power of Knowing awakens into Action."
preview | full record— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)
Date: 1698
"Your Bulwarks, Entrenchments and Redoubts lay so cunningly hid in your Way of Ideas, that they were altogether Invisible; so that the most quick-sighted Engineer living could not discern them, or take any sure Aim at them: Much less such a Dull Eye as mine; who, tho' I bend my Sight as strongly ...
preview | full record— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)
Date: 1698
"From all which Considerations, (any One of which might suffice,) I may Safely and Evidently conclude, that, in point of Evidence of its Truth, and Stability of its Grounds, nothing can be any way comparable to the Light which strikes the Eye of our Understanding, by its steady Rays emitted from ...
preview | full record— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)
Date: 1698
"So that, which way soever you wriggle, to avoid our Rule, the Light of Common Reason, or Natural Logick, will force you into it, whether you will or no."
preview | full record— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)
Date: 1698
"Our own Thoughts, and those of others, do, in all our Conversations, use to come to us, clad in Words: Whence it happens, that 'tis very hard, liquidly and clearly to strip the Sense from those Words; and to consider It, and nothing but It."
preview | full record— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)
Date: 1698
"This Proposition, then, say we, is such, that our Understanding no sooner opens its Eye, to take a View of it, but it must assent to it, because of the Self-evident Identification of its Terms; whose Self-Evidence we do therefore make our Rule."
preview | full record— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)
Date: 1698
"Nay, it must be such as may be produc'd openly, by the Asserters of any Truth; that, by alledging It, they may be able to convince others, that what they maintain is a Real Truth, and not some Phantastick Conceit of their own; without which, their Clear and Distinct Perception is Invisible, and ...
preview | full record— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)
Date: 1698
"And, my Reason is, because, unless Men take Principles along with them, to guide their Thoughts right, and keep an Attentive Eye to them, while they thus Meditate; 'tis to be fear'd, their long Meditating will, by its frequent Dints, so imprint and fix what you have told them, in their Brain; an...
preview | full record— Sergeant, John (1622-1707)