Date: 1759

"He shewed, with great strength of sentiment, and variety of illustration, that human nature is degraded and debased, when the lower faculties predominate over the higher."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1759

"The way to be happy is to live according to nature, in obedience to that universal and unalterable law with which every heart is originally impressed; which is not written on it by precept, but engraven by destiny, not instilled by education, but infused at our nativity."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1759

"He shewed, with great strength of sentiment, and variety of illustration, that human nature is degraded and debased, when the lower faculties predominate over the higher; that when fancy, the parent of passion, usurps the dominion of the mind, nothing ensues but the natural effect of unlawful go...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1759

"By degrees the reign of fancy is confirmed; she grows first imperious, and in time despotick."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1765 [1764]

"Arriving there, he sought the gloomiest shades, as best suited to the pleasing melancholy that reigned in his mind."

— Walpole, Horatio [Horace], fourth earl of Orford (1717-1797)

Date: 1773

Suicide might be allowable if a man "were under no obligations to any law, either of Nature, or Reason, or Society: not to mention the Revealed Will of God, by which all murder is forbidden."

— Graves, Richard (1715-1804)

Date: 1794

I may act "in obedience to the principle which at present governed me with absolute dominion"

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1794

"I would not shackle you with fetters of suspicion; I would have you governed by justice and reason."

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1796

"The trial is dangerous; he is just at that period of life when the passions are most vigorous, unbridled, and despotic."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"He closed his eyes, but strove in vain to banish her from his thoughts."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)