Date: 1748, 1749

"But if the brain be at the same time well framed and instructed, it is a fruitful and well sown soil, that produces a hundred fold to what it received."

— Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751)

Date: 1750, 1752

"Whether the Mind, like Soil, doth not by Disuse grow stiff; and whether Reasoning and Study be not like stirring and dividing the Glebe?"

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1750, 1752

"Whether even those Parts of Academical Learning which are quite forgotten, may not have improved and enriched the Soil, like those Vegetables which are raised, not for themselves, but plowed in for a Dressing of Land?"

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: Tuesday, March 27, 1750

"The task of an author is, either to teach what is not known, or to recommend known truths by his manner of adorning them; either to let new light in upon the mind, and open new scenes to the prospect, or to vary the dress and situation of common objects, so as to give them fresh grace and more p...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Saturday, November 3, 1750

"Some of these instructors of mankind have not contented themselves with checking the overflows of passion, and lopping the exuberance of desire, but have attempted to destroy the root as well as the branches; and not only to confine the mind within bounds, but to smooth it for ever by a dead calm."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1751, 1777

"Reverse, in any considerable circumstance, the condition of men: Produce extreme abundance or extreme necessity: Implant in the human breast perfect moderation and humanity, or perfect rapaciousness and malice: By rendering justice totally useless, you thereby totally destroy its essence, and su...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1751, 1777

"The dilemma seems obvious: As justice evidently tends to promote public utility and to support civil society, the sentiment of justice is either derived from our reflecting on that tendency, or like hunger, thirst, and other appetites, resentment, love of life, attachment to offspring, and other...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1751, 1777

"But no passion, when well represented, can be entirely indifferent to us; because there is none, of which every man has not, within him, at least the seeds and first principles."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1751, 1777

"On the other hand, were it doubtful, whether there were, implanted in our nature, any general principle of moral blame and approbation, yet when we see, in numberless instances, the influence of humanity, we ought thence to conclude, that it is impossible, but that every thing, which promotes th...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1751, 1777

"Nor will those reasoners, who so earnestly maintain the predominant selfishness of human kind, be any wise scandalized at hearing of the weak sentiments of virtue, implanted in our nature."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)