Date: 1733

"Nothing is more void of real improvement and instruction to the mind, and more fulsom, than heaps of quotations, and tedious disquisitions what opinions such and such men were of, in relation to matters properly determinable only by right reason and Scripture."

— Browne, Peter (d. 1735)

Date: 1733

"To explain how the mind or soul of man simply sees is one thing, and belongs to philosophy."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1757

"The mind of man has naturally a far greater alacrity and satisfaction in tracing resemblances than in searching for differences; because by making resemblances we produce new images, we unite, we create, we enlarge our stock; but in making distinctions we offer no food at all to the imagi...

— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)

Date: 1757

"The term Taste, like all other figurative terms, is not extremely accurate: the thing which we understand by it, is far from a simple and determinate idea in the minds of most men, and it is therefore liable to uncertainty and confusion."

— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)

Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"The differing colours which suit different complections, are not more various than the different pleasures appropriated to particular minds."

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"Should some unexpected turn of fortune take thee from fetters, and place thee on a throne, exultation would be natural upon the change; but the temper, like the face, would soon resume its native serenity."

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"But of all the wonders of the east, the most useful, and I should fancy, the most pleasing, would be the looking-glass of Lao, which reflects the mind as well as the body."

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"I must own, by this time I began myself to suspect the fidelity of my mirror; for as the ladies appeared at least to have the merit of rising early, since they were up at five, I was amazed to find nothing of this good quality pictured upon their minds in the reflection; I was resolved therefore...

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"We should find her, if any sensible defect appeared in the mind, more careful in rectifying it, than plaistering up the irreparable decays of the person; nay, I am even apt to fancy, that ladies would find more real pleasure in this utensil in private, than in any other bauble imported from Chin...

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1760-1761, 1762

"The first person who came up in order to view her intellectual face was a commoner's wife, who, as I afterwards found, being bred during her virginity in a pawn-broker's shop, now attempted to make up the defects of breeding and sentiment by the magnificence of her dress, and the expensiveness o...

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)