Date: 1759

"That a Man may be scarce less ignorant of his own powers, than an Oyster of its pearl, or a Rock of its diamond; that he may possess dormant, unsuspected abilities, till awakened by loud calls, or stung up by striking emergencies, is evident from the sudden eruption of some men, out of perfec...

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1759, 1761

"To her mind's eye a thousand ghosts appear, / The foolish apparitions of her fear."

— Fawkes, Francis (1720-1777); Menander (342-291 B.C.)

Date: September 15, 1759

"In the mythological pedigree of Learning, Memory is made the mother of the Muses by which the masters of ancient Wisdom, perhaps, meant to shew the necessity of storing the mind copiously with true notions, before the imagination should be suffered to form fictions or collect embellishments; for...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: September 15, 1759

"Where there is no striking disparity, it is difficult to know of two which remembers most, and still more difficult to discover which read with greater attention, which has renewed the first impression by more frequent repetitions, or by what accidental combination of ideas either mind might hav...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: September 15, 1759

"Thus they load their minds with superfluous attention, repress the vehemence of curiosity by useless deliberation, and by frequent interruption break the current of narration or the chain of reason, and at last close the volume, and forget the passages and the marks together."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: September 15, 1759

"The hand has no closer correspondence with the Memory than the eye"

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: September 15, 1759

"No man will read with much advantage, who is not able, at pleasure, to evacuate his mind, or who brings not to his Author an intellect defecated and pure, neither turbid with care nor agitated by pleasure."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: September 15, 1759

"If the repositories of thought are already full, what can they receive?"

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1759

"Mankind's the same to Beasts and Fouls / That Devils are to Humane Soules, / Who therefor, when like Fiends th' appeare, / Avoyd and Fly with equal feare."

— Butler, Samuel (1613-1680)

Date: 1759

"'Tis in the Culture of the Mind, as in that of the Earth; Precepts may be sown too thick together; so as to smother, and obstruct the Growth, and Product of each other, by encumbring the Soil, where they are sown; and by that Means frustrate the Labor of him, who sowes them."

— Marriott, Thomas (d. 1766)