Date: 1759
"You will easily believe that I was pleased with his courtesy; and finding that his predominant passion was desire of money, I began now to think my danger less, for I knew that no sum would be thought too great for the release of Pekuah."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1759
"He shewed, with great strength of sentiment, and variety of illustration, that human nature is degraded and debased, when the lower faculties predominate over the higher."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1759
"The way to be happy is to live according to nature, in obedience to that universal and unalterable law with which every heart is originally impressed; which is not written on it by precept, but engraven by destiny, not instilled by education, but infused at our nativity."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1759
"He shewed, with great strength of sentiment, and variety of illustration, that human nature is degraded and debased, when the lower faculties predominate over the higher; that when fancy, the parent of passion, usurps the dominion of the mind, nothing ensues but the natural effect of unlawful go...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1759
"By degrees the reign of fancy is confirmed; she grows first imperious, and in time despotick."
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1760
"[W]hen the mighty spirit of a large mass of gold takes possession of the human heart, it influences all its actions, and overpowers, or banishes, the weaker impulse of those immaterial, unessential notions called virtues"
preview | full record— Johnstone, Charles (c.1719-c.1800)
Date: 1760-7
"When a man gives himself up to the government of a ruling passion,--or, in other words, when his Hobby-Horse grows head-strong,--farewell cool reason and fair discretion!"
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: 1760-7
"Thus conscience, this once able monitor,--placed on high as a judge within us, and intended by our Maker as a just and equitable one too,--by an unhappy train of causes and impediments, takes often such imperfect cognizance of what passes,--does its office so negligently,--sometimes so corruptly...
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: 1760-7
Whenever one's "inward testimony goes against a man, and he stands self-accused,--that he must necessarily be a guilty man."
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: 1760-7
The "little interests below" may "rise up and perplex the faculties of our upper regions, and encompass them about with clouds and thick darkness."
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)