Date: 1793

"I am looking, madam,' said she, 'over the catalogue of my mind, to see if I have ever read any thing like it"

— Dibdin, Charles (bap. 1745, d. 1814)

Date: 1793

"She said she foresaw that, if his heart was not steel and adamant, he would be ruined; that she had read his mind thoroughly, and plainly saw that the only vice he had in the world was want of deceit."

— Dibdin, Charles (bap. 1745, d. 1814)

Date: 1794

"No--no!--no man's temper's more mild, when taken at a proper season, but now his head's as crowded as a newspaper, and in as much confusion as your work-bag, what with the thoughts of his new varnish, and the expectation of Mr. Vapour,--I'll speak to him for you."

— Hoare, Prince (1755-1834)

Date: 1794

"Therefore I take the mind or soul of men to be so perfectly indifferent to receive all impressions, as a rasa tabula, or white paper, &c."

— Morell, Thomas (1703-1784)

Date: 1795

"Like souls unborn and unequipp'd, / A blank, of many a passion stripp'd."

— Stevenson, John Hall (1717-1785)

Date: 1795

"I'm only a living volume, and if you will peruse my thoughts, you'll read of nothing but yourself --you are engraved here in indelible letters"

— Reynolds, Frederick (1764-1841)

Date: 1795

"The infant mind has been compared to a tabula rasa, or sheet of clean paper: but there is this essential difference, as hath been well observed, between the opposite objects of comparison they are not both equally Indifferent to the inscription which they are to bear."

— Napleton, John (1738/9-1817)

Date: 1796

"Ay: ay: this is none of your modern paper skull'd authors--old Geoffery's head is sound"

— Reynolds, Frederick (1764-1841)

Date: w. 1788-93, 1796 (rev. 1815, 1827, 1837, 1897)

"The action of the pen will doubtless imprint an idea on the mind as well as on the paper: but I much question whether the benefits of this laborious method are adequate to the waste of time; and I must agree with Dr. Johnson, (Idler, No. 74.) 'that what is twice read, is commonly better remember...

— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)

Date: 1796

"I have read the emotions of your bosom; you are yet ill skilled in concealing them, and they could not escape my attentive eye."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)