Date: Monday, March 12, 1711

"The Mind that lies fallow but a single Day, sprouts up in Follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous Culture."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Monday, March 3, 1712

"It were as little Hazard to be lost in a Storm, as to lye thus perpetually becalmed: And it is to no Purpose to have within one the Seeds of a thousand good Qualities, if we want the Vigour and Resolution necessary for the exerting them."

— Hughes, John (1678?-1720)

Date: Saturday, June 7, 1712

"We should always act with great Cautiousness and Circumspection in Points, where it is not impossible that we may be deceived. Intemperate Zeal, Bigotry and Persecution for any Party or Opinion, how praiseworthy soever they may appear to weak Men of our own Principles, produce infinite Calamitie...

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Saturday, June 28, 1712

"By this means they awaken other Ideas of the same Sett, which immediately determine a new Dispatch of Spirits, that in the same manner open other Neighbouring Traces, till at last the whole Sett of them is blown up, and the whole Prospect or Garden flourishes in the Imagination."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: January 6, 1716

"As self-love is an instinct planted in us for the good and safety of each particular person, the love of our country is impressed on our minds for the happiness and preservation of the community."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: March 30, 1716

"It often happens, that extirpating the love of glory, which is observed to take the deepest root in noble minds, tears up several virtues with it"

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: 1730

"This would effectually kill in us all the little seeds of pride, vanity and self-conceit, which are apt to shoot up in the minds of such whose thoughts turn more on those comparative advantages which they enjoy over some of their fellow-creatures, than on that infinite distance which is placed b...

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: 1741, 1742, 1755

"A Miracle that can be accounted for no other Way, than by what has been said above of the Legislator's principal Concern in the Support of the Doctrine; and of the deep Root it takes in the Mind of Man, when once it is received, by its agreeable Nature."

— Warburton, William (1698-1779)

Date: 1771

"The growth of knowledge" resembles "the growth of fruit," as it is "the internal vigour, and virtue of the tree that must ripen the juices to their just maturity"

— Harris, James (1709-1780)

Date: December 10, 1774; 1775

"The mind is but a barren soil; is a soil soon exhausted, and will produce no crop, or only one, unless it be continually fertilised and enriched with foreign matter."

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)