Date: c. 10-8 BC

"quidquid praecipies, esto brevis, ut cito dicta / percipiant animi dociles teneantque fideles: / omne supervacuum pleno de pectore manat" [Whatever precepts you give, be concise; that docile minds may soon comprehend what is said, and faithfully retain it. All superfluous instructions flow from ...

— Quintus Horatius Flaccus [Horace] (65 BC - 8 BC)

Date: 1319

"Only two men of all // Are truly just--whose words the rest ignore, / For the triple sparks of envy, greed, and pride / Ignite their hearts."

— Dante, Alighieri (1265-1321)

Date: 1380-1387

"Thus gan he make a mirour of his minde, / In which he saugh al hoolly hir figure."

— Chaucer, Geoffrey (c. 1340-1400)

Date: 1384

"O Thought, that wroot al that I mette, / And in the tresorie hit shette / Of my brayn!"

— Chaucer, Geoffrey (c. 1340-1400)

Date: 1386-1400

"That oon of hem was blynd and myghte not see, / But it were with thilke eyen of his mynde / With whiche men seen, after that they ben blynde."

— Chaucer, Geoffrey (c. 1340-1400)

Date: 1390

"Minerve for the hed thei soghten, / For sche was wys, and of a man / The wit and reson which he can / Is in the celles of the brayn, / Wherof thei made hire soverain."

— Gower, John (c. 1330-1408)

Date: c. 1420

"Thou woost wel, who shal an hous edifie / Gooth nat ther-to withoute avisament / If he be wys, for with his mental ye / First is it seen, purposid, cast & ment, / How it shal wroght been, elles al is shent."

— Hoccleve [Occleve], Thomas (c.1367-1426)

Date: w. c. 1425-1440

"Then wolle the chambir of my thought trewly / Of plesaunce take a light in eche parté / Such ioy wolle him aray so fresshe and hy / That waken must myn heuy hert slepé / Out of his fowle and sluggissh slogardé."

— Charles [d'Orléans], duke of Orléans (1394-1465)

Date: 1582

"So great a Light hath set my mind on fire, / That flesh and bone consume with secret flame"

— Watson, Thomas (1555/6-1592)

Date: 1588

"My mind to me a kingdom is; / Such perfect joy therein I find / That it excels all other bliss / Which God or nature hath assign'd."

— Dyer, Sir Edward (1543-1607)