Date: 1793
"If the mind is a barren waste, of what avail are the beauties of the most lovely face, the elegance of the most enchanting shape, the grace of the most accomplished person; the imperceptible hand of time will deprive them of every external charm, and eclipse the lustre of the most penetrating eye."
preview | full record— Anonymous [By an American Lady]
Date: 1793
"Of all bondage, mental bondage is surely the most fatal; the absurd despotism which has hitherto, with more than gothic barbarity, enslaved the female mind, the enervating and degrading system of manners by which the understandings of women have been chained down to frivolity and trifles, have i...
preview | full record— Hays, Mary (1760-1843)
Date: 1794
"While Plato explains the allegory [of Minerva and Diomed] into no more than this: How Wisdom or Reason should in like manner so dispel the mists of the mind, that it may be at liberty to discern, examine, and contemplate what is good and what is evil."
preview | full record— Piozzi, [née Salusbury; other married name Thrale] Hester Lynch (1741-1821)
Date: 1795 (w. 1787)
"Words may flatter you, but the countenance never can deceive you; the eyes are the windows of the soul, and through them you are to watch what passes in the inmost recesses of the heart."
preview | full record— Edgeworth, Maria
Date: 1796
"Her form and her mind were of equal elasticity."
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1796
"Edgar, to whom the sun-beams of the mind gave a glow which not all the sparkling rays of the brightest eyes could emit, respected her modesty too highly to combat it, and, dropping the subject, enquired what was become of Eugenia."
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1796
"And Eugenia, to whose early reflecting mind every new character and new scene opened a fresh fund for thought, if not for knowledge, was charmed to take a nearer view of what promised such food for observation."
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1796
"Edgar, touched by a comparison to the person he most honoured, gratefully looked his acknowledgment; and all displeasure at her flight, even from Thomson's scene of conjugal felicity, was erased from his mind."
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1796
"The form and the mind of Lavinia were in the most perfect harmony."
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1796
"He saw how profound was the impression made upon her mind, not merely of her personal evils, but of what she conceived to be the misconduct of her friends."
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)