Date: 1732

"He that wants the proper materials of thought, may think and meditate for ever to no purpose: those cobwebs spun by scholars out of their own brains being alike unserviceable, either for use or ornament."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1732

"Gorgias hath gone further, demonstrating man to be a piece of clock-work or machine; and that thought or reason are the same thing as the impulse of one ball against another."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1732

"To remove and cast off a heap of rubbish that has been gathering upon the soul from our very infancy, requires great courage and great strength of faculties."

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1732

"It is very possible, the heroic labours of these men may be represented (for what is not capable of misrepresentation?) as a piratical plundering and stripping the mind of its wealth and ornaments, when it is in truth the divesting it only of its prejudices, and reducing it to its untainted orig...

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1733

"May not the sentient Principle have its Seat in some Place in the Brain, where the Nerves terminate, like the Musician shut up in his Organ-Room? May not the infinite Windings, Convolutions, and Complications of the Beginning of the Nerves which constitute the Brain, serve to d...

— Cheyne, George (1671-1743)

Date: 1734

"Besides the five Senses, the Naturalists generally speak of a Sensorium, or common Sense, which they reckon the ground of all Sensation, or a Medium, as it were, for modifying the Impressions and conveying them to the Mind."

— Forbes of Pitsligo, Alexander Forbes, Lord (1678-1762)

Date: 1734

"And perhaps it is owing to this Medium or Canal, among other things, that having two Eyes and two Ears we do not see nor hear double."

— Forbes of Pitsligo, Alexander Forbes, Lord (1678-1762)

Date: 1734

"But as there is no fix'd Standard for most words, sometimes the Heart, and sometimes the Bowels, is made use of, to signify those Sentiments of Tenderness and Pity, and also the Seat of them; the Head being generally taken for the Seat of the Judgment, as well as for the Judgment it self."

— Forbes of Pitsligo, Alexander Forbes, Lord (1678-1762)

Date: 1734

"Mean-time the Body, which we study to soak in Pleasure like a Sponge, is of it self but a mere dead Husk, and drops off at last: and a Man reckons upon it no farther, than as a Machine for bringing him Pleasure, and would sometimes be content to change it for another Body, if he could, and does ...

— Forbes of Pitsligo, Alexander Forbes, Lord (1678-1762)

Date: 1734

"These three Operations of numbering, weighing, and measuring, seem to answer to the several Exercises of Reason; and so 'tis compared sometimes to a Ballance, sometimes to a Line."

— Forbes of Pitsligo, Alexander Forbes, Lord (1678-1762)