Date: 1644, 1647

"Sensory awareness comes about by means of nerves, which stretch like threads from the brain to all the limbs, and are joined together in such a way that hardly any part of the human body can be touched without producing movement in several of the nerve-ends that are scattered around in that area"

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1645

"Though the candle of Reason excell in light the Glow-worms of sense, Yet it is but a candle not the sun it self;"

— Sterry, Peter (1613-1672)

Date: 1646

"To every individual in nature is given an individual property by nature not to be invaded or usurped by any."

— Overton, Richard (fl. 1640-1663)

Date: 1646

"To every Individuall in nature is given an individual property by nature, not to be invaded or usurped by any: for every one as he is himselfe, so he hath a selfe propriety"

— Overton, Richard (fl. 1640-1663)

Date: 1646

"For by naturall birth, all men are equally and alike borne to like propriety, liberty, and freedome, and as we are delivered of God by the hand of nature into this world, every one with a naturall, innate freedome and propriety (as it were writ in the table of every mans heart, never to be oblit...

— Overton, Richard (fl. 1640-1663)

Date: 1647

"it is a firme Law and radicall principle in Nature engraven in the tables of the heart by the finger of God in creation for every living moving thing, wherein there is a breadth of life to defend, preserve, award, and deliver it selfe from all things hurtfull, destructive and obnoctious thereto ...

— Overton, Richard (fl. 1640-1663)

Date: 1647

"False Coin with which th'Impostor cheats us still; / The Stamp and Colour good, but Metal ill!"

— Cowley, Abraham (1618-1667)

Date: 1648

"Thus all common notions which are engraved in the mind have their origin in observation of things or in verbal instruction."

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1648

"Thus a man who is dressed can be regarded as a compound of a man and clothes. But with respect to the man, his being dressed is merely a mode, although clothes are substances. In the same way, in the case of a man, who is composed of a soul and a body, our author might be regarding the body as t...

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1649

"Or were these gems sent to adorn his skin, / The cabinet of a richer soul within?"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)