Date: 1760-7

"Could no such thing as favour and affection enter this sacred Court [of Conscience]:--Did Wit disdain to take a bribe in it;--or was asham'd to shew its face as an advocate for an unwarrantable enjoyment?"

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)

Date: 1723

"Tho' now, 'tis true, the strong Temptation's Force / Suspends Religion, and diverts its Course; / Yet still the Pow'r that chiefly rules your Soul, / And will I trust your future Life controul, / Is heav'nly Virtue, which, tho' now opprest / It sleeps a while unactive in your Breast, / Will, rou...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1709, 1714

"The Specter still will haunt us, in some Shape or other: and when driven from our cool Thoughts, and frighted from the Closet, will meet us even at Court, and fill our Heads with Dreams of Grandure, Titles, Honours, and a false Magnificence and Beauty; to which we are ready to sacrifice our high...

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: From Tuesday May 30. to Thursday June 1. 1710

"In a Word, the Beauties and the Charms of Nature and of Art court all my Faculties, refresh the Fibres of the Brain, and smooth every Avenue of Thought. What pleasing Meditations, what agreeable Wanderings of the Mind, and what delicious Slumbers, have I enjoyed here?"

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: 1759

"They are upon these occasions commonly cited as the ultimate foundations of what is just and unjust in human conduct; and this circumstance seems to have misled several very eminent authors, to draw up their systems in such a manner, as if they had supposed that the original judgments of mankind...

— Smith, Adam (1723-1790)

Date: 1703, 1718

"Passions Subjection to their Guide disown, / Insult their Soveraign, and subvert his Throne"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1703, 1718

Fancy may "fickle reign in Reason's Seat, / And Thy wild Empire, Anarchy, uphold"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1703, 1718

"Hostile Desires fierce Wars repeat"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1703, 1718

Tyrant desires subject man to "various Servitude, and endless Change of Pain"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1703, 1718

"Guilt's infernal Gloom, and horrid Night" may "O'erwhelm [Man's] Intellectual Sight"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)