Date: 1641
"I am not that structure of limbs which is called a human body. I am not even some thin vapour which permeates the limbs - a wind, fire, air, breath, or whatever I depict in my imagination; for these are things which I have supposed to be nothing."
preview | full record— Descartes, René (1596-1650)
Date: 1651
"Many erroneous opinions are about the essence and original of [the rational soul]; whether it be fire, as Zeno held; harmony, as Aristoxenus; number, as Xenocrates; whether it be organical, or inorganical; seated in the brain, heart or blood; mortal or immortal; how it comes into the body."
preview | full record— Burton, Robert (1577-1640)
Date: 1652
"Many sparks and appearances fly from variety of objects to the understanding; The minde, that catches them all, and cherishes them, and blows them; and thus the Candle of knowledge is lighted."
preview | full record— Culverwell, Nathanael (bap. 1619, d. 1651)
Date: 1657
"Cupid denied of this did backward start, / And ran for hast to hide him in her heart, / Where he renewed fresh flames, and by delay, / So I corcht his wings he could not fly away / Thus force perforce in her my conquer'd breast / Is the poore Inne of such a God-borne guest, / Whom while I harbor...
preview | full record— Bold, Henry (1627-1683)
Date: 1658
"The soul seems to be like a little flame or a most attenuated kind of fire, which thrives or remains kindled while the animal lives, since if it no longer thrives or is put out, the animal dies."
preview | full record— Gassendi, Pierre (1592-1655)
Date: 1659
"The minde is sometimes a Bull, sometimes a Serpent, and sometimes a flame of fire"
preview | full record— Tubbe, Henry (1618-1655)
Date: 1659
"The minde is sometimes a Bull, sometimes a Serpent, and sometimes a flame of fire; and then the musick of the soule is quite out of tune; the Bells ring backward as in some general conflagration."
preview | full record— Tubbe, Henry (1618-1655)
Date: 1659
Anger "consumes the lodging wherein it lies, the heart; it consumes the object whither it goes; and looks death and destruction upon every thing in the way."
preview | full record— Tubbe, Henry (1618-1655)
Date: March 24, 1659
"[Oliver Cromwell's] temper exceeding fiery, as I have known, but the flame of it kept down, for the most part, or soon allayed with those moral endowments he had."
preview | full record— Maidston, John
Date: 1660
"Things that the least of drossy mixture hold, / Last longest; my Hearts flames Ætherial be, / More pure than seven times refined Gold / Than Cedar's flames: rays of a Deitie / They are."
preview | full record— Pordage, Samuel (bap. 1633, d. c. 1691)