Date: 1747-8

In the afterlife "to be worse than worst / Of those that lawless and uncertain thought / Imagines howling" is too horrible

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1748, 1777

"They know, that a human body is a mighty complicated machine: That many secret powers lurk in it, which are altogether beyond our comprehension: That to us it must often appear very uncertain in its operations: And that therefore the irregular events, which outwardly discover themselves, can be ...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1748, 1768

Friendly powers create "These maladies in pity to mankind: / These abdicated Reason reinstate / When lawless Appetite usurps the mind"

— Browne, Isaac Hawkins (1705-1760)

Date: 1748, 1777

"In vain do we hope, that men, from frequent disappointment, will at last abandon such airy sciences, and discover the proper province of human reason."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1748, 1777

"It may, therefore, be a subject worthy of curiosity, to enquire what is the nature of that evidence, which assures us of any real existence and matter of fact, beyond the present testimony of our senses, or the records of our memory."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1748, 1777

"By means of it alone we attain any assurance concerning objects, which are removed from the present testimony of our memory and senses."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1748

"Let godlike reason, from her sovereign throne, / Speak the commanding word 'I will!' and it is done."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1748, 1754

The law "is within us, ever present with us, ever active and incumbent on the Mind, and engraven on the Heart in the fair and large Signatures of Conscience, Natural Affection, Compassion, Gratitude, and universal Benevolence."

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)

Date: 1748, 1754

"To those good Dispositions, which respect the several Objects of our Duty, and to all Actions which flow from such Disposition, the Mind gives its Sanction or Testimony."

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)

Date: 1748, 1754

"For if Virtue is something that deserves our Esteem and Love, then it must exist before Conscience is exerted, or gives its Testimony."

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)