Date: 1766

"As a bird that had been frighted from its nest, my affections out-went my haste, and hovered around my little fire-side, with all the rapture of expectation."

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1766

"[A] little cunning is sufficient to enable us to take advantage of the discovery; for cunning attains its little ends more surely than wisdom; like the despicable mole which works its way through the greatest mountains, while the noble lion cannot penetrate one foot deep into the earth"

— Scott [née Robinson], Sarah (1720-1795)

Date: 1766

Gallantry "suffers, sometimes, another passion to get before it; reason and interest, often, hold the bridle, and, make it give way to our situation, and, affairs."

— Trusler, John (1735-1820)

Date: 1766

"And strong discretion bridles restive wit."

— Woodhouse, James (bap. 1735, d. 1820)

Date: 1767

"Man in this world, Sir, may be compared to a hackney-coach upon a stand; continually subject to be drawn by his unruly appetites, on one foolish jaunt or another; but you will say, if his appetites are horses, which as it were drag him along, reason is the coachman to rule those horses--But, Sir...

— Bickerstaff, Isaac (b. 1733, d. after 1808)

Date: 1767

"In this department, reason reassumes the reins, points out and prescribes the flight of fancy, assigns the office, and determines the authority of taste, which, as we have already observed, must here be contented to act a secondary part."

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"The same creative power, the same extent and force, the same impetuosity, and fire of Imagination, distinguish both almost in an equal degree; with this difference only, that the latter is permitted to range with a LOOSER rein than is indulged to the former, which, though it may dare to emulate ...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

This ideal region is indeed the proper sphere of Fancy, in which she may range with a loose rein, without suffering restraint from the severe checks of Judgment; for Judgment has very little jurisdiction in this province of Fable."

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"Ordinary minds seldom rise above the dull uniform tenor of common sentiments, like those animals that are condemned to creep on the ground all the days of their life; but the most lawless excursions of an original Genius, like the flight of an eagle, are towering, though devious; its path, as th...

— Duff, William (1732-1815)

Date: 1767

"He gave the reins to his passions; he again became the slave of voluptuous appetites."

— Sheridan [née Chamberlaine], Frances (1724-1766)