Date: w. 1796, 1799

"Notwithstanding the law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members."

— Osborn, Sarah (1714-1796)

Date: 1890

"No rack can torture me, / My  soul's at liberty."

— Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886)

Date: 1892

"The  soul  unto itself / Is an imperial friend,— / Or the most agonizing spy / An enemy could send."

— Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886)

Date: 1892

Secure against its own, / No treason it can fear; / Itself its sovereign, of itself / The soul should stand in awe."

— Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886)

Date: 1956

"There sits no higher court / Than man's red heart."

— Plath, Sylvia (1932-1963)

Date: 1957

"That lofty monarch, Monarch Mind, / Blue-blooded in coarse country reigned."

— Plath, Sylvia (1932-1963)

Date: 2010

"With the rap of the gavel, the Judge Judy tribunal in my brain, permanently empowered, was at once in session and I found myself under harsh cross-examination."

— Castle, Terry (b. 1953)

Date: May 20, 2013

"As this book began to veer astray, I felt that Lindemann's mind was like a sleek yacht built for exhilarating grace and speed but commandeered by moldy tyrants for mundane use as a sluggish freighter."

— Paglia, Camille (b. 1947)

Date: February 18, 2017

"Then think of the president's skull, which is stuffed with other humours: insecurity, insincerity, victimhood, paranoia, mockery, self-delusion, suspicion, calculation, illogic, vindictiveness, risk, bullying, alimentiveness, approbativeness, vitativeness. Gall, divided into three parts."

— Dowd, Maureen (b. January 14, 1952)