Date: 1790
"Their view calls off his attention from his own view; and his breast is, in some measure, becalmed the moment they come into his presence. This effect is produced instantaneously and, as it were, mechanically; but, with a weak man, it is not of long continuance."
preview | full record— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)
Date: 1790
"All the splendour of the highest prosperity can never enlighten the gloom with which so dreadful an idea must necessarily over-shadow the imagination; nor, in a wise and virtuous man, can all the sorrow of the most afflicting adversity ever dry up the joy which necessarily springs from the habit...
preview | full record— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)
Date: 1803
"And all the floating thoughts we find / Upon the surface of the mind."
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: 1815
The wavering motions of the mind are like "quivering light" reflected off a confined "crystal flood" in a brass cistern
preview | full record— Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Date: Date Unknown
It is difficult for a "powerful mind" to be its own master: "a lake wants mountains to compass and hold it in."
preview | full record— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)