Date: 1652

"And truly he might as well phansie such implanted Ideas, such seeds of light in his external eye, as such seminal principles in the eye of the minde."

— Culverwell, Nathanael (bap. 1619, d. 1651)

Date: 1686, 1689, 1697

"How doth Reason exert it self by little and little, what Helps and Arts are there us'd to make the Flower open and shew it self to the World?"

— Nourse, Timothy (c.1636–1699)

Date: 1711

"When Fancy makes superior Flight her Aim, / Wing'd with this vig'rous, clear seraphick Flame, / She ranges Nature's universal Frame; / Bright Seeds of Thought from various Objects takes, / Whence her fair Scenes and Images she makes: / Spirits so swift, so fine, so bold, so strong, / Gave Milton...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1711

"Your Hearts, as barren as your Rocks and Sand, / Her Charms and pow'rful Influence withstand; / Whose heav'nly Rays defeated thence recoil, / Like Sun-Beams wasted on unfruitful Soil."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1711

"These Spirits rais'd from Choler to the Brain, / Like those extracted from the basest Grain, / Impure and crude, produce unnatural Heat, / And an ignoble Flame of Life create."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: January 1739

"The identity, which we ascribe to the mind of man, is only a fictitious one, and of a like kind with that which we ascribe to vegetables and animal bodies."

— Hume, David (1711-1776)

Date: 1744

"A serious mind is the native soil of every virtue, and the single character that does true honour to mankind."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1744

"As Love of Pleasure is ordain'd to guard / And feed our bodies, and extend our race; / The Love of Praise is planted to protect / And propagate the glories of the mind."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1744

"The thorns shoot up! What thorns in every thought! / Why sense of better? It embitters worse."

— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)

Date: 1751

"This sentiment, rooted in the mind, is an antidote to all misfortune."

— Home, Henry, Lord Kames (1696-1782)