Date: 1794

"Emily observed these written characters of his thoughts with deep interest, and not without some degree of awe, when she considered that she was entirely in his power; but forbore even to hint her fears, or her observations, to Madame Montoni, who discerned nothing in her husband, at these times...

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1796

"The mind of a young woman lady should be clear and unsullied, like a sheet of white paper, or her own fairer face"

— Hays, Mary (1760-1843)

Date: 1797

"An habitual gloom and severity prevailed over the deep lines of his countenance; and his eyes were so piercing that they seemed to penetrate, at a single glance, into the hearts of men, and to read their most secret thoughts; few persons could support their scrutiny, or even endure to meet them ...

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1814

"You should listen to me till you were tired, and advise me till you were tired still more; but it is impossible to put an hundredth part of my great mind on paper, so I will abstain altogether, and leave you to guess what you like.

— Austen, Jane (1775-1817)

Date: 1860

"Consider, too, that all the pleasant little dim ideas and complacencies -- of standing well with Timpson, of dispensing advice when he was asked for it, of impressing his friend Tulliver with additional respect, of saying something and saying it emphatically, with other inappreciably minute ingr...

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1860

"But then, it is open to some one else to follow great authorities and call the mind a sheet of white paper or a mirror, in which case one's knowledge of the digestive process becomes quite irrelevant."

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1860

"At present, in relation to this demand that he should learn Latin declensions and conjugations, Tom was in a state of as blank unimaginativeness concerning the cause and tendency of his sufferings, as if he had been an innocent shrewmouse imprisoned in the split trunk of an ash tree in order to ...

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1963

"And she set something on my tongue and in panic I bit down, and darkness wiped me out like chalk on a blackboard."

— Plath, Sylvia (1932-1963)

Date: 1999

"I tried to keep my mind white and blank."

— Budnitz, Judy (b. 1973)

Date: 2011

"A yellow-brown glob would slide down the metal, and Tommie would shut her eyes, the bees and white heads of flowers nodding in the warm daylight and the silhouette of Gary’s baseball cap written across the inside of her skull."

— Nadzam, Bonnie