Date: Saturday March 24, 1750

"The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1751

"Mankind would be in a perpetual reverie; ideas would be constantly floating in the mind; and no man be able to connect his ideas with himself."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1751

"A reverie is nothing else, but a wandering of the mind through its ideas, without carrying along the perception of self."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1751

"Frightful ideas croud into the mind, and augment the fear, which is occasioned by darkness."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: August 27, 1751

"She applies by turns to every object, enjoys it for a short time, and flies with equal ardour to another. She delights to catch up loose and unconnected ideas, but starts away from systems and complications which would obstruct the rapidity of her transitions, and detain her long in the same pur...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: August 27, 1751

"The painted vales of imagination are deserted, and our intellectual activity is exercised in winding through the labyrinths of fallacy, and toiling with firm and cautious steps up the narrow tracks of demonstration."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: August 27, 1751

"At length weariness succeeds to labour, and the mind lies at ease in the contemplation of her own attainments, without any desire of new conquests or excursions."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: April 10, 1753

"The same contrariety of impulse may be perhaps discovered in the motions of men: we are formed for society, not for combination; we are equally unqualified to live in a close connection with our fellow beings, and in total separation from them: we are attracted towards each other by general symp...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1754

"Our simple ideas fade in the mind, or fleet out of it, unless they are frequently renewed: and the most tenacious memory cannot maintain such as are very complex, without the greatest attention, and a constant care, nor always with both."

— St John, Henry, styled first Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751)

Date: 1754

"This is the great intellectual province, wherein our minds range with much freedom, and often with exorbitant licence, in the pursuit of real or imaginary science."

— St John, Henry, styled first Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751)