Date: 1698

"I was apt to think the best way were, to let Nature spend it self; and although those who write out of their own Thoughts do it with as much Ease and Pleasure as a Spider spins his Web; yet the World soon grows weary of Controversies, especially when they are about Personal Matters."

— Stillingfleet, Edward (1635-1699)

Date: 1707, 1709

Mr Clark "Conquer'd those Vipers in his Conscience bred, / And with himself, shot all the stinging Fantoms dead"

— Ward, Edward (1667-1731)

Date: 1708

"As if his hollow Skull had been / A Hive fill'd full of Bees within" who "To Wax and Honey turn'd his Brains; / For the long Speech he did transmit, / Was sometimes hard, and sometimes sweet"

— Ward, Edward (1667-1731)

Date: From Thursday Sept. 7. to Saturday Sept. 9. 1710

"One would think they hoped to conquer their Mistresses Hearts as People tame Hawks and Eagles, by keeping them awake, or breaking their Sleep when they are fallen into it."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: 1711

"[S]trange Dis-orders are bred in the Minds of those Men whose Passions are not regulated by Vertue, and disciplined by Reason"

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Friday, June 8, 1711

"I have seen a very ingenious Author on this Subject, who founds his Speculations on the Supposition, That as a Man hath in the Mould of his Face a remote Likeness to that of an Ox, a Sheep, a Lion, an Hog, or any other Creature; he hath the same Resemblance in the Frame of his Mind, and is subje...

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Thursday, November 1, 1711

"Horace has a Thought which is something akin to this, when, in order to excuse himself to his Mistress, for an Invective which he had written against her, and to account for that unreasonable Fury with which the Heart of Man is often transported, he tells us that, when Prometheus made his Man of...

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Thursday, November 1, 1711

"But upon turning this Plan to and fro in my Thoughts, I observed so many unaccountable Humours in Man, that I did not know out of what Animals to fetch them."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: 1712, 1736

There are sovereign Lords "Whom Lust controuls, and wild Desires direct; / The Reigns of Empire but such Hands disgrace, / Where Passion, a blind Driver, guides the Race."

— Granville, George, Baron Lansdowne (1666-1735)

Date: 1773

"Strong Passions draw, like Horses that are strong, / The Body-Coach of Flesh and Blood along; / While subtle Reason, with each Rein in Hand, / Sits on the Box, and has them at Command; / Rais'd up aloft, to see and to be seen, / Judges the Track, and guides the gay Machine."

— Byrom, John (1692-1763)