Date: April, 1783

"Let an Hypochondriack then have his park well stocked. Let him get as many agreeable ideas into his mind as he can; and though there may in wintery days seem: a total vacancy, yet when summer glows benignant, and the time of singing of birds is come, he will be delighted with gay colours and enc...

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: 1783

"Besides, when the senses have nothing to employ them, the mind is left (if I may so speak) a prey to its own thoughts; the Imagination becomes unmanageable; the nerves lose their wonted vigour"

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1783

"I shall only remark, that too much study will in time shatter the strongest nerves, and make the soul a prey to melancholy. "

— Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Date: 1785

"BOSWELL. 'But, sir,'tis like walking up and down a hill; one man will naturally do the one better than the other. A hare will run up a hill best, from her fore-legs being short; a dog down.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, sir; that is from mechanical powers. If you make mind mechanical, you may argue in that ma...

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: 1785

"Besides, so great a mind as his cannot be moved by inferior objects: an elephant does not run and skip like lesser animals."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: 1789

"I found him a present help in the time of need, and the captain's fury began to subside as the night approached: but I found, 'That he who cannot stem his anger's tide / Doth a wild horse without a bridle ride.'"

— Equiano, Olaudah [Gustavus Vasa] (c. 1745-1797)

Date: 1790

"The man of parts may be admired for his quickness, as the racer is, who flies before the wind; but it is the draft or road-horse of steadier pace that (like good sense) is useful to mankind."

— Moore, Charles (fl. 1785-90)

Date: 1790, 1794, 1795, 1818, 1827

"The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, & breeds reptiles of the mind."

— Blake, William (1757-1827)

Date: 1790

"This can only be done by a power out of themselves; and not, in the exercise of its function, subject to that will and to those passions which it is its office to bridle and subdue."

— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)

Date: 1791

"Every desire is a viper in the bosom, who, while he was chill, was harmless; but when warmth gave him strength, exerted it in poison."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)