Date: w. 350 B.C.

"This explains why, in those who are strongly moved owing to passion, or time of life, no memory is formed; just as no impression would be formed if the movement of the seal were to impinge on running water; while there are others in whom, owing to the receiving surface being frayed, as happens t...

— Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

Date: w. 350 B.C.

"The former are too moist, the latter too hard, so that in the case of the former the image does not remain in the soul, while on the latter it is not imprinted at all."

— Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

Date: c. 300 B.C.

"The sage's heart-mind in stillness is the mirror of Heaven and earth, the glass of the ten thousand things."

— Zhuangzi (4th century BC)

Date: c. 300 B.C.

"Perfect persons use their heart-minds like mirrors—going after nothing, welcoming nothing, responding but not storing."

— Zhuangzi (4th century BC)

Date: w. c. 238

"Hence, the human heart-mind may be compared to a pan of water. If you place the pan upright and do not stir the water up, the mud will sink to the bottom, and the water on top will be clear and pure [qing ming] enough to see your beard and eyebrows and to examine the lines on your face."

— Xunzi (died after 238 BC)

Date: w. c. 238

"But if a slight wind passes over its surface, the submerged mud will be stirred up from the bottom, and the clarity and purity of the water at the top will be disturbed so that it is impossible to obtain the correct impression of even the general outline of the face. Now, the heart-mind is just ...

— Xunzi (died after 238 BC)

Date: 45 B.C.

"sed tamen nullum theatrum virtuti conscientia maius est" [But yet there is no greater theatre for virtue than one's own consciousness.]

— Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 B.C. - 43 B.C.)

The soul is to the body as a scent is to the flower.

— Epicurus (341-270 B.C.)

Date: c. 43 AD

"It is the mind that makes us rich; this goes with us into exile, and in the wildest wilderness, having found there all that the body needs for its sustenance, it itself overflows in the enjoyment of its own goods."

— Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (c. 4 B.C. - A.D. 65)

Date: c. 43 AD

"Meanwhile, hampered by mortal limbs and encompassed by the heavy burden of the flesh, it surveys, as best it can, the things of heaven in swift and winged thought."

— Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (c. 4 B.C. - A.D. 65)