Date: 1762

"We might spend our time in going from place to place, where none wish to see us except they find a deficiency at the card table, perpetually living among those, whose vacant minds are ever seeking after pleasures foreign to their own tastes, and pursue joys which vanish as soon as possessed."

— Scott [née Robinson], Sarah (1720-1795)

Date: 1767

"The vacancy he found in his heart was insupportable."

— Sheridan [née Chamberlaine], Frances (1724-1766)

Date: 1767

"Whilst he endeavoured to fill up the vacuity he found in his mind, his time was spent at best but in a sort of insipid tranquillity. The voluptuary has no taste for mental pleasures."

— Sheridan [née Chamberlaine], Frances (1724-1766)

Date: 1776

"Their hearts are tied up in their purses."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1777

"She passed the night without rest; the ideas of coaches, coronets, titles, filled her mind, and effectually murdered sleep."

— Brooke [née Moore], Frances (bap. 1724, d. 1789)

Date: 1778, 1779

"Yes, my child, thy happiness is engraved, in golden characters, upon the tablets of my heart! and their impression is indelible; for, should the rude and deep-searching hand of Misfortune attempt to pluck them from their repository, the fleeting fabric of life would give way, and in tearing from...

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1778, 1779

"I had many witticisms to endure from the Branghtons, upon account of my staying so long with the Scotch mope, as they call him; but I attend to them very little, for my whole heart was filled with pity and concern."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1778, 1779

"Perhaps had I first seen you, in your kind and sympathising bosom I might have ventured to have reposed every secret of my soul; and then--but let me pursue my journal."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1778, 1779

"Though ev'ry beauty is her own, / And though her mind each virtue fills, / Anville,--to her power unknown, / Artless, strikes,--unconscious kills!"

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1778, 1779

"'Oh, Sir,' exclaimed I, 'that you could but read my heart!--that you could but see the filial tenderness and concern with which it overflows! you would not then talk thus,--you would not then banish me your presence, and exclude me from your affection!'"

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)