Date: 1682

"Fancy is but the Feather of the Pen; / Reason is that substantial useful part, / Which gains the Head, while t'other wins the Heart."

— Sheffield, John, first duke of Buckingham and Normanby (1647-1721)

Date: 1704

"My Soul's, as to that Affair, a clean sheet of Paper, a meer Tabula Rasa; therefore, Sir, you may impress any Characters in the World upon it; Mahometan, Jew, or Pagan, 'tis all a case to your poor distressed Servant"

— Brown, Thomas (bap. 1663, d. 1704)

Date: 1710, 1734

There are ideas in the mind of God, "which are so many marks or notes that direct him how to produce sensations in our minds" just as a musician uses notes to produce a tune.

— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Date: 1710

"But now, my Lord, I am coming to the melancholly Part of fair Agnes's Description, her Mind, 'twas all a Blot, nor had it ever been otherways; she had no Notion of Things, no Discourse, no Memory."

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Date: 1711

"The Mind of Man is allowed to be a Rasa Tabula, which in the Old Account of things, alludes to those Tablets of Wax, on which the Ancients wrote and engross'd all their Business; But in a Modern Translation, this can signify nothing else, but a fair Sheet of Paper: over which we must suppose the...

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Date: 1711

"From this Account it is plain, that the Desire of Being in Print, is an Idea, if not Unnate, yet one of the first that gets into our Minds: whence all Men express a Natural Propensity and Inclination, to be Authors"

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Date: 1711

"In the First place, he undertakes to say, That the Doctor went a Rasa Tabula to the University; And then adds, he believed that all Human and Divine Knowledge as to be had there."

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Date: 1711

"Now Human Knowledge and Divine Knowledge, are very General and Comprehensive Ideas: and where these are lodged in the Mind of a Child, it is impossible that Child should be a Rasa Tabula; Indeed a Rasa Tabula of about Fourteen or Fifteen Years old, ought by all...

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Date: 1711

"[T]ill I am satisfied that he never pulled Geese, Thumb'd a Primmer, Tore a Bible, disputed with his Dad about the Rights of Nature, or Tipp'd all Nine out of a Republican Principle, without any regard to the Middle Pinn, I must believe in Charity...

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

Date: 1711

"What this Author says, does by no means take off from the Calumny: that he as a Rasa Tabula, educated in the Country: for tho' it be highly Reasonable that every Rasa Tabula should be well Educated, yet even a Country Education is not to be despised; I have known a Square

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)