Date: 1651, 1668

"Potent men, digest hardly any thing that setteth up a power to bridle their affections; and learned men, any thing that discovereth their errors, and thereby lesseneth their authority: whereas the common people's minds, unless they be tainted with dependance on the potent, or scribbled over with...

— Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679)

Date: 1651, 1668

"In sum, the discourse of the mind, when it is governed by design, is nothing but seeking, or the faculty of invention, which the Latins called sagacitas, and solertia; a hunting out of the causes, of some effect, present or past; or of the effects, of some present or past ca...

— Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679)

Date: 1651

"Voluntary, the third, or intellective, which commands the other two in men, and is a curb unto them, or at least should be, but for the most part is captivated and overruled by them; and men are led like beasts by sense, giving reins to their concupiscence and several lusts."

— Burton, Robert (1577-1640)

Date: 1651, 1668

"Sometimes a man knows a place determinate, within the compass whereof he is to seek; and then his thoughts run over all the parts thereof, in the same manner as one would sweep a room, to find a jewel; or as a spaniel ranges the field, till he find a scent; or as a man should run over the alphab...

— Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679)

Date: 1651

"Now, treacherous Boy, thou hast me sure, / Playing the Wanton with my Heart, / As foolish Children that a Bird have got, / Slacken the Thread, but not unty the knot."

— Sherburne, Sir Edward (bap. 1616, d. 1702)

Date: 1651, 1668

"Seeing then that truth consisteth in the right ordering of names in our affirmations, a man that seeketh precise truth, had need to remember what every name he uses stands for; and to place it accordingly; or else he will find himselfe entangled in words, as a bird in lime twiggs; the more he st...

— Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679)

Date: 1651, 1668

"From whence it happens, that they which trust to books, do as they that cast up many little summs into a greater, without considering whether those little summes were rightly cast up or not; and at last finding the errour visible, and not mistrusting their first grounds, know not which way to cl...

— Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679)

Date: w. 1652, 1836

"Amongst all those passions which ride men's souls none so jade and tire them out as envy and jealousy; theire journey is longer than any of the rest, they bate seldomer, and commonly ride double, for sure a man cannot bee jealous of his Mistrisse without at the same time envious of his rivall."

— Temple, Sir William (1628-1699)

Date: 1654

"But where that cannot be had, it is fit that Justice and Charity should so far overrule mens actions, that every man may not be carryed in matter of contract, by the sway of his owne unreasonable will, and be free to carve for himselfe as he lists of the buyers purse: every man hath a bird in hi...

— Hall, Joseph (1574-1656)

Date: 1654

"[T]here are cases wherein this law must vaile to an higher, which is the law of Conscience: Woe be to that man who shall tye himselfe so close to the letter of the law, as to make shipwrack of conscience; And that bird in his bosome will tell him, that if upon what ever pretences, he shall willi...

— Hall, Joseph (1574-1656)