Date: 1748, 1754

"At least we generally esteem [Neatness, Cleanliness, and Decency, to which we may add Dignity of Countenance, and Demeanour] Indications of an orderly, genteel, and well-governed Mind, conscious of inward Worth, or the Respect due to one's Nature."

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)

Date: 1748, 1754

"He will learn to transfer the Numbers of Poetry to the Harmony of the Mind, and of well-governed Passions."

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)

Date: 1748, 1754

"[W]ere the Mind entirely under the Direction of Sense, and impressible only by such Objects as are present, and strike some of the outward Organs, we should then be precisely in the State of the Brute-Creation, and be governed solely by Instinct or Appetite, and have no Power to controul whateve...

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)

Date: 1748, 1754

"Nature has therefore endued us with a MIDDLE FACULTY, wonderfully adapted to our MIXED State, which holds partly of Sense and partly of Reason, being strongly allied to the former, and the common Receptacle in which all the Notices that come from that quarter are treasured up, and yet greatly su...

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)

Date: 1748, 1754

"The Mind is out of Frame, and feels an Agony proportioned to the Violence of the reigning Passion."

— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)

Date: 1748, 1750

"l'interêt est le plus grande monarque de la Terre" [Self-interest is the strongest monarch in the world]

— Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (1689-1755)

Date: 1748, 1749

"If reason is the slave of depraved, or distracted sense, how then can it be expected, that at that time it should be governor?"

— Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751)

Date: 1748, 1749

"It is ridiculous to exclaim against the dominion of the will. For one order which it gives, a hundred times does it come under the yoke."

— Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709-1751)

Date: Saturday, August 25, 1750

In "the seats of innocence and tranquility ... where I should see reason exerting her sovereignty over life, without any interruption from envy, avarice, or ambition, and every day passing in such a manner as the severest wisdom should approve."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, April 24, 1750

"Those sudden bursts of rage generally break out upon small occasions; for life, unhappy as it is, cannot supply great evils as frequently as the man of fire thinks it fit to be enraged; therefore the first reflection upon his violence must shew him that he is mean enough to be driven from his po...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)