Date: 370-300 B.C.

"Moreover, the conclusion of this argument of yours is a fine one,--how that for every man who knows not how to make use of his soul it is better to have his soul at rest and not to live, than to live acting according to his own caprice; but if it is necessary for him to live, it is better after ...

— Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)

Date: 1641

The "I" is not present in the body as a sailor is in a ship but is joined and intermingled with it

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1655

"Therefore it belongs to the will as to the Generall of an Army to moove the other powers of the soul to their acts, and among the rest the understanding also, by applying it and reducing its power into act."

— Bramhall, John (1594-1663)

Date: 1655

"So the will is the Lady and Mistris of human actions, the understanding is her trusty counseller, which gives no advise, but when it is required by the will."

— Bramhall, John (1594-1663)

Date: 1657

The fancy is a "Boundlesse, restlesse faculty, free from all engagements, diggs without spade, sails without Ships, Flies without wings, builds without charges, fights without bloodshed, in a moment striding from the Center to the circumference of the world, by a kind of omnipotency creating and ...

— Poole, Joshua (c.1615–c.1656)

Date: 1664

"But the source which produces these spirits is usually so abundant that they enter these cavities in sufficient quantity to have the force to push out against the surrounding matter and make it expand, thus tightening all the tiny nerve-fibres which come from it (in the way that a moderate wind ...

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1686, 1712

"Thus Vice and Virtue do my Soul divide, / Like a Ship tost between the Wind and Tide."

— Arwaker, Edmund (c.1655-1730)

Date: 1691

"Thirdly, Let us hence duly learn to prize and value our Souls; is the Body such a rare Piece, what this is the Soul? the Body is but the Husk or Shell, the Soul is the Kernel; the Body is but the Cask, the Soul the precious Liquor contained in it; the Body is but the Cabinet; the Soul the Jewel;...

— Ray [formerly Wray], John (1627–1705)

Date: 1691

"Dancing, Singing, Swearing, Impudence, / Can make Impressions upon easie sense"

— Ames, Richard (bap. 1664?, d. 1692)

Date: 1691

"Here cou'd I easily step over, with the Feet of my Fancy (wider then ten thousand Colossus's, though one of them be big enough for a Ship to Sail between its Legs) to all the Spires in London."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)