Date: 1796

"I then--alas, too late! dived deeper, with, then, useless investigation,--and discovered an early passion, never erased from her mind;--discovered--that I had never made her happy! that she was merely enduring, suffering me--while my whole confiding soul was undividedly hers!"

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

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: 1799

The inexpressible feeling may be engraved on a tear or on the heart

— Geisweiler, Maria (fl. 1799); Kotezebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1799

One may have an "open look, in which goodness and a noble soul are deeply engraven"

— Geisweiler, Maria (fl. 1799); Kotezebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1805

"To draw whose character exceeds my art, / I bear it deep engraven in my heart; / Yet this one print drawn out, I'll dare to say / Phoebus himself can scarce the whole display"

— Blount [née Guise], Annabella (fl. 1700-741)

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: 1825

The "white page of innocence and youth" may be tinted.

— Barbauld, Anna Letitia [née Aikin] (1743-1825)

Date: June 19, 1834

"I know my own sentiments, because I can read my own mind, but the minds of the rest of man and woman-kind are to me as sealed volumes, hieroglyphical scrolls, which I can not easily unseal or decipher."

— Brontë, Charlotte (1816-1855)

Date: June 19, 1834

"How many after having, as they thought, discovered the word friend in the mental volume, have afterwards found that they have read false friend!"

— Brontë, Charlotte (1816-1855)