Date: 1751, 1777

"Another spring of our constitution, that brings a great addition of force to moral sentiment, is, the love of fame; which rules, with such uncontrolled authority, in all generous minds, and is often the grand object of all their designs and undertakings."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1751

"The imagination is thereby kept within bounds, and under due subjection to sense and reason."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1751

"We first consider the nature of that act of the mind, which is termed belief; of which the immediate foundation is the testimony of our senses."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)

Date: 1751

"It remains, therefore, that the motions performed by us, in consequence of an irritation, are owing to the original constitution of our frame, and law of union established by the all-wise Creator between the soul and body, whereby the former, immediately and without any exercise of reason, endea...

— Whytt, Robert (1714-1766)

Date: 1754, 1762

"The two ruling passions of this parliament, were zeal for liberty, and an aversion to the church; and to both of these, nothing could appear more exceptionable, than the court of high commission, whose institution rendered it entirely arbitrary, and assigned to it the defence of the ecclesiastic...

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1757, 1777

"However we may be hurried away by the spectacle; whatever dominion the senses and imagination may usurp over the reason, there still lurks at the bottom a certain idea of falsehood in the whole of what we see"

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1757, 1777

"But TERENCE and VIRGIL maintain an universal, undisputed empire over the minds of men."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1757

"This in the mean time is obvious, that the empire of all religious faith over the understanding is wavering and uncertain, subject to every variety of humour, and dependent on the present incidents, which strike the imagination."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1759

"Sentiments, designs, affections, though it is from these that according to cool reason human actions derive their whole merit or demerit, are placed by the great Judge of hearts beyond the limits of every human jurisdiction, and are reserved for the cognizance of his own unerring tribunal."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1759

"The thoughts of that admiration, whose effects they were never to feel, played about their hearts, banished from their breasts the strongest of all natural fears, and transported them to perform actions which seem almost beyond the reach of human nature."

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)