Date: February 1791
"Montesquieu, President of the Parliament of Bordeaux, went as far as a writer under a despotic government could well proceed; and being obliged to divide himself between principle and prudence, his mind often appears under a veil, and we ought to give him credit for more than he has expressed."
preview | full record— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)
Date: 1791
"I compared him at this time to a warm West-Indian climate, where you have a bright sun, quick vegetation, luxuriant foliage, luscious fruits; but where the same heat sometimes produces thunder, lightening, and earthquakes in a terrible degree.
preview | full record— Boswell, James (1740-1795)
Date: 1791
"I will venture to say, that in no writings whatever can be found more bark and steel for the mind, if I may use the expression; more that can brace and invigorate every manly and noble sentiment."
preview | full record— Boswell, James (1740-1795)
Date: 1791
"Every page of the Rambler shews a mind teeming with classical allusion and poetical imagery."
preview | full record— Boswell, James (1740-1795)
Date: 1791
"I cannot allow any fragment whatever that floats in my memory concerning the great subject of this work to be lost."
preview | full record— Boswell, James (1740-1795)
Date: 1792
"The variety of nature is such, that new objects, and new combinations of them, are continually adding something to our fund, and inlarging our collection: while the same kind of object occurring frequently, is seen under various shapes; and makes us, if I may so speak, more learned in nature."
preview | full record— Gilpin, William (1724-1804)
Date: 1792
"Often, when slumber has half-closed the eye, and shut out all the objects of sense, especially after the enjoyment of some splendid scene; the imagination, active, and alert, collects it's scattered ideas, transposes, combines, and shifts them into a thousand forms, producing such exquisite scen...
preview | full record— Gilpin, William (1724-1804)
Date: 1792
"Let all their thoughts be unconfined, / And clap your padlock on their mind."
preview | full record— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)
Date: 1793
"All kings have possessed such a portion of luxury and ease, have been so far surrounded with servility and falshood, and to such a degree exempt from personal responsibility, as to destroy the natural and wholesome complexion of the human mind."
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Date: 1793
"In this unequal contest, alarm and apprehension will perpetually haunt the minds of those who exercise usurped power."
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)