Date: 731

"Ond he eal þa he in gehærnesse geleornian meahte mid hine gemyndgade, ond swa swa clæne neten eodorcende in þæt sweteste leoð gehwerfde." And he was able to learn all that he heard; and remembering within him, just as a clean animal chewing cud [ruminating], he turned it into the swe...

— Bede (672/3 - 735)

Date: 1159

"What is more remarkable, every one of us carries in his heart a book of knowledge, opened by the exercise of reason."

— John of Salisbury (c. 1115-1180)

Date: 1159

"In this [book of reason] are portrayed not only the forms of all visible things and nature in general; the invisible things of the Fabricator of all things are also written down by the very hand of God."

— John of Salisbury (c. 1115-1180)

Date: w. c. 1210

"The measuring line of his mind lays out the work, and he mentally outlines the successive steps in a definite order."

— Vinsauf, Geoffrey of [called Galfridus Anglicus] (fl. 1208-1213)

Date: w. c. 1210

"The mind's hand shapes the entire house before the body's hand builds it."

— Vinsauf, Geoffrey of [called Galfridus Anglicus] (fl. 1208-1213)

Date: w. c. 1210

"Let the mind's interior compass first circle the whole extent of the material."

— Vinsauf, Geoffrey of [called Galfridus Anglicus] (fl. 1208-1213)

Date: w. c. 1210

"As a prudent workman, construct the whole fabric within the mind's citadel; let it exist in the mind before it is on the lips."

— Vinsauf, Geoffrey of [called Galfridus Anglicus] (fl. 1208-1213)

Date: 1380-1387

"Thus gan he make a mirour of his minde, / In which he saugh al hoolly hir figure."

— Chaucer, Geoffrey (c. 1340-1400)

Date: 1384

"O Thought, that wroot al that I mette, / And in the tresorie hit shette / Of my brayn!"

— Chaucer, Geoffrey (c. 1340-1400)

Date: 1386-1400

"That oon of hem was blynd and myghte not see, / But it were with thilke eyen of his mynde / With whiche men seen, after that they ben blynde."

— Chaucer, Geoffrey (c. 1340-1400)