Date: January 28, 1753

"I have heard that his understanding was rather hurt by the absolute retirement in which he lived, and indeed he had an imagination too lively to be trusted to itself; the treasures of it were inexhaustible, but for want of commerce with mankind he made that rich oar into bright but useless medal...

— Montagu [née Robinson], Elizabeth (1718-1800)

Date: 1754

One may spend their "life continually haunted with ghosts," formed by one's "own capricious imagination" enemies may be cherished in one's bosom

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768) and Jane Collier (bap. 1715, d. 1755)

Date: 1754

"But this I dare not propose, as I know it would shake his generous soul almost to madness: and was he even to consent that I should banish myself for his sake, my ghost would every day haunt his imagination, and we should be equally as miserable when separate, as we are now by being united."

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768) and Jane Collier (bap. 1715, d. 1755)

Date: 1754

"Unless we could prove that to moderate, and not to inflame the passions, is the only method of attaining happiness; and that it is the interest of man at once to use and to be thankful for his reason, and not absurdly by disuse to weaken its force, and at the same time vainly to boast of its str...

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768) and Jane Collier (bap. 1715, d. 1755)

Date: 1754

"At the early age of six years old I lost my father; yet his precepts were the principal foundation of all the instructions I afterwards received: for young as I was, he perceived (he said) the openings of a lively imagination; which, if directed into a right channel, would turn to my advantage, ...

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768) and Jane Collier (bap. 1715, d. 1755)

Date: 1754

"My father kindly resolved that I should not have the Herculean labour of cleansing the Augean: stable, or what is much worse, a corrupted mind"

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768) and Jane Collier (bap. 1715, d. 1755)

Date: 1754

"I should be ashamed of myself, if I would not acknowledge the merit of Ben Johnson as a writer; but a capacity for writing holds so very low a place in my esteem, when weigh'd in the balance with an honest heart, that with me (and I wish it was the same with every other human creature) it...

— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768) and Jane Collier (bap. 1715, d. 1755)

Date: 1754

"I thought it good, in Release of the weighty Burthen of my weak Conscience, and also the quiet Estate of this worthy Realm, to attempt the Law therein, whether I may lawfully take another Wife, by whom God may send me more Issue, in case this my first Copulation was not good, without any carnal ...

— Lennox, née Ramsay, (Barbara) Charlotte (1730/1?-1804)

Date: 1755

"Nor can I answer for the strange Effect a contrary Report might have wrought, on a Mind so giddily loaded with conceited Transport."

— Charke [née Cibber; other married name Sacheverell], Charlotte [alias Mr Brown] (1713-1760)

Date: 1755

"But this, I fear, will prove the heaviest and bitterest Corrosive to my Mind; and the more I reflect on it, find myself less able to support such an Unkindness from that Hand, which, I thought, would have administer'd the gentle Balm of Pity."

— Charke [née Cibber; other married name Sacheverell], Charlotte [alias Mr Brown] (1713-1760)