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Date: 1580

The Pyrrhonist's mind "is a white sheet prepared to take from the finger of God what form soever it shall please him to imprint therein."

— Montaigne, Michel Eyquem seigneur de (1533-1592)

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Date: 1606

To properly prepare a soul for God, one must "qualify it, cleanse it, strip it, and denude it of all opinion, belief, inclination, make it like a white sheet of paper, dead to itself and the world, so that God may live and operate in it."

— Charron, Pierre (1541-1603)

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Date: 1704

"It's a kind of tabula rasa, a Blank, that almost with the same Facility receives the Characters of Angel, and of Devil; but when once it's stained with Sin, when it's by-assed by ill Habits, and worse Principles, you will find it stubborn and rebellious."

— Darrell, William (1651-1721)

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Date: w. c. 1709, 1711

"As on the land while here the Ocean gains, / In other parts it leaves wide sandy plains; / Thus in the soul while memory prevails, / The solid pow'r of understanding fails; / Where beams of warm imagination play, / The memory's soft figures melt away."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

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Date: 1712, 1715, 1719

A contrivance may raze "out all those Characters of Friendship and fraternal Love, which [...] virtuous and generous Behaviour" may engrave in the Heart

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

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Date: 1733

"My head and heart thus flowing thro' my quill, / Verse-man or Prose-man, term me which you will."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

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Date: 1743

"When Reason doubtful, like the Samian letter, / Points him two ways, the narrower is the better."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

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Date: 1756-9

"From their cradle she instilled into them the most perfect maxims of piety, and contempt of the world. the ancient Romans dreaded nothing more in the education of youth than their being ill taught the first principles of the sciences; it being more difficult to unlearn the errours then imbibed, ...

— Butler, Alban (1709-1773)

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Date: 1766, 1806

"Say, from thy mind canst thou so soon remove / The records pencil'd by the hand of love?"

— Jerningham, Edward (1727-1812)

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Date: 1771

"The infant mind at coming to the world, is a meer rasa tabula, destitute of all ideas and materials of reflection."

— Usher, James (1720-1771)

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The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.