Date: 1590?, 1623

"O, know'st thou not his looks are my soul 's food? / Pity the dearth that I have pinèd in / By longing for that food so long a time. "

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1597

"Thy head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of meat, and yet thy head hath been beaten as addle as an egg for quarrelling."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1598

"The mind shall banquet, though the body pine."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1598

"Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book. He hath not eat paper, as it were, he hath not drunk ink. His intellect is not replenished, he is only an animal, only sensible in the duller parts."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1610

Man "into himself can draw / All, all his faith can swallow, or reason chaw ... All the round world, to man is but a pill."

— Donne, John (1572-1631)

Date: 1662

"Flowers, rivers, woods, the pleasant air and wind, / With Sacred thoughts, do feed my serious mind."

— Watkyns, Rowland (c. 1614-1664)

Date: 1667

Conscience "is a cordial Electuary: / And very many good ingredients go / Therein, Meat, Drink, Sleep, Ease, Refreshment too.

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1667

"Good Conscience on God it self can roul; / 'Tis Aquavitæ to the swouning soul."

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1667

"As a good Conscience; this is they say / A constant Feast; who hath a Conscience good, / Fares well although he have no other Food."

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1667; 2nd ed. in 1674

"But knowledge is as food, and needs no less / Her temperance over appetite, to know / In measure what the mind may well contain; / Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns / Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind."

— Milton, John (1608-1674)