Date: Saturday, November 9, 1751
"But it is generally agreed, that few men are made better by affluence or exaltation; and that the powers of the mind, when they are unbound and expanded by the sunshine of felicity, more frequently luxuriate into follies, than blossom into goodness."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: November 15, 1751
"My life was divided between the care of providing topicks for the entertainment of my company, and that of collecting company worthy to be entertained; for I soon found, that wit, like every other power, has its boundaries; that its success depends upon the aptitude of others to receive impressi...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Tuesday, January 22, 1751
"The loose sparkles of thoughtless wit may give new light to the mind, and the gay contention for paradoxical positions rectify the opinions."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: Tuesday, March 10, 1752
"It is not sufficient to maintain the first vigour; for excellence loses its effect upon the mind by custom, as light after a time ceases to dazzle."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1755
"That it will immediately become popular I have not promised to myself: a few wild blunders, and risible absurdities, from which no work of such multiplicity was ever free, may for a time furnish folly with laughter, and harden ignorance in contempt; but useful diligence will at last prevail, and...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1759
"He compared reason to the sun, of which the light is constant, uniform, and lasting; and fancy to a meteor, of bright but transitory lustre, irregular in its motion, and delusive in its direction."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1760-1761, 1762
"His boasted reason seems only to light him astray, and brutal instinct more regularly points out the path to happiness."
preview | full record— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)
Date: 1760-1761, 1762
"Where, I again repeat it, is human reason! not only some men, but whole nations, seem divested of its illumination."
preview | full record— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)
Date: 1760-1761, 1762
"Reason cannot resolve. It lends a ray to shew the horrors of my prison, but not a light to guide me to escape them."
preview | full record— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)
Date: 1766
"We talked of the pleasures of temperance, and of the sun-shine in the mind unpolluted with guilt."
preview | full record— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)