Date: 1790

"It is not the warmth and elevations of fancy, or the quick and bright assemblage of ideas, which irradiate the paths of beneficial truth; since none are more liable to error than they, who conduct themselves by the wild and dancing light of imagination alone."

— Moore, Charles (fl. 1785-90)

Date: 1790

"All the pleasing illusions, which made power gentle, and obedience liberal, which harmonized the different shades of life, and which, by a bland assimilation, incorporated into politics the sentiments which beautify and soften private society, are to be dissolved by this new conquering empire of...

— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)

Date: 1790

"This was reserved to our time, to quench the little glimmerings of reason which might break in upon the solid darkness of this enlightened age."

— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)

Date: 1791

"I have a wonderful superstitious love of mystery; when, perhaps, the truth is, that it is owing to the cloudy darkness of my own mind."

— Boswell, James (1740-1795)

Date: January 19, 1791

"You know them but at a distance, on the statements of those who always flatter the reigning power, and who, amidst their representations of the grievances, inflame your minds against those who are oppressed. These are amongst the effects of unremitted labour, when men exhaust their attention, bu...

— Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)

Date: 1792

Light may break in and great ideas may dawn upon the mind

— Tytler, Alexander Fraser (1747-1813); Schiller (1759-1805)

Date: 1792

"This has sometimes an astonishing effect on the mind; giving the imagination an opening into all those glowing ideas, which inspired the artist; and which the imagination only can translate."

— Gilpin, William (1724-1804)

Date: 1792

"That sweet enchantress ... Can give to Fancy's work a blaze more bright, / Or Reason's steady lamp feed with new light."

— Whyte, Samuel (1733-1811)

Date: 1793

" When painful truths invade the mind, / Ev'n wisdom wishes to be blind, / And hates th' officious ray."

— Blacklock, Thomas (1721-1791)

Date: 1793

In a just society "understanding would convert into a real power, no longer an ignis fatuus, shining and expiring by turns, and leading us into sloughs of sophistry, false science and specious mistake"

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)