Date: 1620

"For whereas in this first book of aphorisms I proposed to prepare men's minds as well for understanding as for receiving what is to follow; now that I have purged and swept and levelled the floor of the mind, it remains that I place the mind in a good position and as it were in a favourable aspe...

— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)

Date: 1623

"[C]onscience, as a Scribe or Notary, sitting in the closet of mans heart, with pen in hand, records and keepes a Catalogue, or Diary of all our Doings, of the time when, place where, the manner how they were performed, adn that so cleere and evident, that goe where we will, doe what we can, the ...

— Carpenter, Richard (1575-1627)

Date: 1624, 1628

"Heu dolor! caveae membra fuere meae. / Pes compes, manicaeque manus, nervique catenae, / Ossaque cancellis nativa repagula claustri, / Damner ut hospitii compede vincta mei?" ["Alas, what misery! that the light poured me forth on these unhappy airs! My very limbs are a prison to me. Feet fetters...

— Hugo, Herman (1588-1629)

Date: 1629

"And the soule is in this body, not as at home in her owne house, but as a trauailer in an Inne."

— Cole, James (fl. 1629)

Date: 1630

"She hath a great propensity to do it good and receives such content in it, as fearing the miscarriage of her beloved she bestows it in the inmost closet of her heart."

— Winthrop, John (1588–1649)

Date: 1633

"within my heart I made / Closets; and in them many a chest; / And like a master in my trade, / In those chests, boxes; in each box, a till: / Yet grief knows all, and enters when he will."

— Herbert, George (1593-1633)

Date: 1641

"Now admittedly, it is not necessary that I ever light upon any thought of God; but whenever I do choose to think of the first and supreme being, and bring forth the idea of God from the treasure house of my mind as it were, it is necessary that I attribute all perfections to him, even if I do no...

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1641

"You may say that you occupy the citadel in your brain and there receive whatever messages are transmitted by the animal spirits which move through the nerves, and sense-perception thus occurs there, where you dwell, despite the fact that it is said to occur throughout the body."

— Gassendi, Pierre (1592-1655)

Date: 1641

"As Lots wife was turned into a Pillar of Salt, that her inconstancie might be fixt, and yet be melting still: So, thou, my Soule, if I had my wish, shouldst be turned into a Pillar of Thoughts; that thy volubility might be restrain'd, and yet be thinking still."

— Baker, Richard, Sir (c. 1568-1645)

Date: 1649

"Or were these gems sent to adorn his skin, / The cabinet of a richer soul within?"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)