Date: 1794

"Her first care was to guard the door of the stair-case, for which purpose she placed against it all the furniture she could move, and she was thus employed, for some time, at the end of which she had another instance how much more oppressive misfortune is to the idle, than to the busy; for, havi...

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1794

"A superstitious dread stole over her; she stood listening, for some moments, in trembling expectation, and then endeavoured to recollect her thoughts, and to reason herself into composure; but human reason cannot establish her laws on subjects, lost in the obscurity of imagination, any more than...

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1794

"[T]he thing in which my imagination revelled the most freely, was the analysis of the private and internal operations of the mind, employing my metaphysical dissecting knife in tracing and laying bare the involutions of motive, and recording the gradually accumulating impulses."

— Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Date: 1796

"By force the thirst of weakly sense is cloyed / Silent attend the frown, the gaze, the smile, / To grasp far objects with incessant toil; / So play life's springs with energy, and try / The unceasing thirst of knowledge to supply."

— Yearsley, Ann (bap. 1753, d. 1806)

Date: 1796

"Thus Books are intellectual Aliment drest / For every appetite of every guest."

— Bishop, Samuel (1731-1795)

Date: 1796

"Or let two words, in my mind's eye, / Unite more close, than You, and I."

— Bishop, Samuel (1731-1795)

Date: w. 1788-93, 1796 (rev. 1815, 1827, 1837, 1897)

"My personal freedom had been somewhat impaired by the House of Commons and the Board of Trade; but I was now delivered from the chain of duty and dependence, from the hopes and fears of political adventure: my sober mind was no longer intoxicated by the fumes of party, and I rejoiced in my escap...

— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)

Date: w. 1788-93, 1796 (rev. 1815, 1827, 1837, 1897)

"By many, conversation is esteemed as a theatre or a school: but, after the morning has been occupied by the labours of the library, I wish to unbend rather than to exercise my mind; and in the interval between tea and supper I am far from disdaining the innocent amusement of a game at cards."

— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)

Date: 1796

"Her form and her mind were of equal elasticity."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1796

"The form and the mind of Lavinia were in the most perfect harmony."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)