Date: 1605

"For the wit and mind of man, if it work upon matter, which is the contemplation of the creatures of God, worketh according to the stuff and is limited thereby; but if it work upon itself, as the spider worketh his web, then it is endless, and brings forth indeed cobwebs of learning, admirable fo...

— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)

Date: 1605, 1640

"Amongst the which this last is of special use in moral and civil matters; how, I say, to set affection against affection, and to master one by another; even as we used to hunt beast with beast, and fly bird with bird, which otherwise percase we could not so easily recover."

— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)

Date: 1607

"Take this my endeauour I pray you in worth, cheerish and foster this deformed brood of my braine, in the lap (if I may so tearme it) of your good liking."

— Walkington, Thomas (b. c. 1575, d. 1621)

Date: 1607

"Therefore Iulian the Apostata who had flood of inuention, although that whole flood could not wash or rinch away that one spot of his atheisme, he (though not knowing him a right) could say the body was the chariot of the soule, which while it was well manag'd by discretion the cunning coachman,...

— Walkington, Thomas (b. c. 1575, d. 1621)

Date: 1610

"Man is a lump, where all beasts kneaded be / Wisdom makes him an ark where all agree."

— Donne, John (1572-1631)

Date: 1621

" It was (as I said) once well agreeing with reason, and there was an excellent consent and harmony between them, but that is now dissolved, they often jar, reason is overborne by passion: Fertur equis auriga, nec audit currus habenas, as so many wild horses run away with a chariot, and will not ...

— Burton, Robert (1577-1640)

Date: 1632

"Secondly, when you have made the heart thus affected with sinne, then take heed that the heart doth not flie off and shake off the yoke."

— Hooker, Richard (1554-1600)

Date: 1651, 1668

"Potent men, digest hardly any thing that setteth up a power to bridle their affections; and learned men, any thing that discovereth their errors, and thereby lesseneth their authority: whereas the common people's minds, unless they be tainted with dependance on the potent, or scribbled over with...

— Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679)

Date: 1651, 1668

"In sum, the discourse of the mind, when it is governed by design, is nothing but seeking, or the faculty of invention, which the Latins called sagacitas, and solertia; a hunting out of the causes, of some effect, present or past; or of the effects, of some present or past ca...

— Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679)

Date: 1651

"Voluntary, the third, or intellective, which commands the other two in men, and is a curb unto them, or at least should be, but for the most part is captivated and overruled by them; and men are led like beasts by sense, giving reins to their concupiscence and several lusts."

— Burton, Robert (1577-1640)