"The imagination in a mathematician who creates makes no less difference than in a poet who invents […]." (Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, "Discours Preliminaire de L'Encyclopedie", 1751)
"Thus, metaphysics and mathematics are, among all the sciences that belong to reason, those in which imagination has the greatest role." (Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, "Discours Preliminaire de L'Encyclopedie", 1751)
"Things which do not now exist in the mind itself, can only be perceived, remembered, or imagined, by means of the ideas or images in the mind, which are the immediate objects of perception, remembrance, and imagination." (Thomas Reid, "An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles", 1764)
"Men always fool themselves when they give up experience for systems born of the imagination. Man is the work of nature, he exists in nature, he is subject to its laws, he can not break free, he can not leave even in thought; it is in vain that his spirit wants to soar beyond the bounds of the visible world, he is always forced to return." (Paul-Henri T d’ Holbach, "Système de la Nature", 1770)
"Psychologists have hitherto failed to realize that imagination is a necessary ingredient of perception itself." (Immanuel Kant, "Critique of Pure Reason", 1781)
"The schema is in itself always a product of imagination. Since, however, the synthesis of imagination aims at no special intuition, but only at unity in the determination of sensibility, the schema has to be distinguished from the image." (Immanuel Kant," Critique of Pure Reason", 1781)
"There are conceptions which may be called fancy pictures. They are commonly called creatures of fancy, or of imagination. They are not the copies of any original that exists, but are originals themselves […]. They were conceived by their creators, and may be conceived by others, but they never existed. We do not ascribe the qualities of true or false to them, because they are not accompanied with any belief, nor do they imply any affirmation or negation." (Thomas Reid,"Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees, in every object, only the traits which favor that theory." (Thomas Jefferson, [letter to Charles Thompson] 1787)
"Conjectures in philosophy are termed hypotheses or theories; and the investigation of an hypothesis founded on some slight probability, which accounts for many appearances in nature, has too often been considered as the highest attainment of a philosopher. If the hypothesis (sic) hangs well together, is embellished with a lively imagination, and serves to account for common appearances - it is considered by many, as having all the qualities that should recommend it to our belief, and all that ought to be required in a philosophical system." (George Adams, "Lectures on Natural and Experimental Philosophy" Vol. 1, 1794)
"Wit is the appearance, the external flash of imagination. Thus its divinity, and the witty character of mysticism." (K W Friedrich von Schlegel, "Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms", [Aphorism 26] 1797)
"The imagination is an eye where images remain forever." (Joseph Joubert, [Letter to Revd. Dr. Trusler] 1799)
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