Date: 1754
"But a nature capable of sensation, that is of perception, that is of thought (to say nothing of spontaneous motion, of memory, nor of the passions) cannot be incapable of another mode of thinking, any more than finite extension can be capable of one figure alone, or a piece of wax that receives ...
preview | full record— St John, Henry, styled first Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751)
Date: 1783
Children's "minds, like a sheet of white paper, are susceptible to every impression"
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Date: 1787
"Architecture being one of the fine arts, and as such within the department of a professor of the college, according to the new arrangement, perhaps a spark may fall on some young subjects of natural taste, kindle up their genius, and produce a reformation in this elegant and useful art."
preview | full record— Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826)
Date: 1787
"They [the Indians] will crayon out an animal, a plant, or a country, so as to prove the existence of a germ in their minds which only wants cultivation."
preview | full record— Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826)
Date: 1787
"But his imagination [Ignatius Sancho's] is wild and extravagant, escapes incessantly from every restraint of reason and taste, and, in the course of its vagaries, leaves a tract of thought as incoherent and eccentric, as is the course of a meteor through the sky."
preview | full record— Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826)
Date: 1787
"This will in some measure stop the increase of this great political and moral evil, while the minds of our citizens may be ripening for a complete emancipation of human nature."
preview | full record— Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826)