Date: 1667

"As a good Conscience; this is they say / A constant Feast; who hath a Conscience good, / Fares well although he have no other Food."

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1667; 2nd ed. in 1674

"But knowledge is as food, and needs no less / Her temperance over appetite, to know / In measure what the mind may well contain; / Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns / Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind."

— Milton, John (1608-1674)

Date: 1667; 2nd ed. in 1674

"Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move / Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird / Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid / Tunes her nocturnal note."

— Milton, John (1608-1674)

Date: 1678

"Into his studious Closet to stuff his Lunatick head, since he can get nothing for his belly."

— Porter, Thomas (1636-1680)

Date: 1681

The Soul "sup[s] above, and cannot stay / To bait so long upon the way"

— Marvell, Andrew (1621-1678)

Date: 1682

"I fear my breast wants room for the excessive joy; is stuck round with the darts of your Beauty, like an Orange that is stuck with Cloves."

— D'Urfey, Thomas (1653?-1723)

Date: 1691

"We feed our Bodies, our Souls are also to be fed: The Food of the Soul is Knowledg, especially knowledg in the Things of God, and the Things that concern its eternal Peace and Happiness."

— Ray [formerly Wray], John (1627–1705)

Date: 1691

"I say I've but one little tiney favour to beg, and then--and that is--that he'd maturely Weigh, Swallow, Chew the Cud, and soundly digest this following first Book, before he throw it out agen, for should he make too much hast, and too greedily read it over, as 'tis to be fear'd the pleasantness...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1699, 1714

"There is no body who has consider'd ever so little the nature of the sensible part, the Soul or Mind, but knows that in the same manner as without action, motion and employment, the Body languishes and is oppress'd, its Nourishment grows the matter and food of Disease, the Spirits unconsum'd hel...

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1700

"But yet, my Lord, we must not drink Despair; that Draught let me throw by, and dash the Goblet, urg'd by the Fiends to hinder future Blessings."

— D'Urfey, Thomas (1653?-1723)