Date: 1760-7

The "conscience of a man, by long habits of sin, might (as the scripture assures it may) insensibly become hard;--and, like some tender parts of his body, by much stress and continual hard usage, lose, by degrees, that nice sense and perception with which God and nature endow'd it"

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

In Catholicism a man's conscience could not possibly continue for long blinded;--"three times in a year, at least, he must go to confession."

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"Will that restore [the conscience] to sight, quoth my uncle Toby?"

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"But if he is so wicked and abandoned a wretch as you represent him;--if he robs,--if he stabs,--will not conscience, on every such act, receive a wound itself? Aye,--but the man has carried it to confession;--the wound digests there, and will do well enough, and in a short time be quite healed u...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

When told by another "that such a thing goes against his conscience,--always believe he means exactly the same thing, as when he tells you such a thing goes against his stomach;--a present want of appetite being generally the true cause of both."

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"[T]his identical bowling-green instantly presented itself, and became curiously painted, all at once, upon the retina of my uncle Toby's fancy"

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"For if you will turn your eyes inwards upon your mind, continued my father, and observe attentively, you will perceive, brother, that whilst you and I are talking together, and thinking and smoaking our pipes: or whilst we receive successively ideas in our minds, we know that we do exist, and so...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1760-7

"But for sleep--I know I shall make nothing of it before I begin--I am no dab at your fine sayings in the first place--and in the next, I cannot for my soul set a grave face upon a bad matter, and tell the world--'tis the refuge of the unfortunate--the enfranchisement of the prisoner--the downy l...

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1761

"The design of nature is therefore evidently to strengthen the body, before the mind is exercised."

— Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712-1778); Kenrick, William (1729/30-1779)

Date: 1761

"You pleasantly asked me once, if souls were of a different sex. No, my dear, the soul is of no sex; but its affections make that distinction, and you begin to be too sensible of it."

— Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712-1778); Kenrick, William (1729/30-1779)