Date: 1752

"Perhaps there may be such; but if there are, those Hearts may be compared, I believe, to Damps, in which it is more difficult to keep Fire alive than to prevent its blazing: In mine, it was placed in the Midst of combustible Matter."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1753

One may make a new conquest and gain "a heart all flaming and adoration"

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1753

"A young amorous heart, I think, may with some analogy be compared to tinder, as it is ready to take fire from every spark that falls"

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1753

"Passion! the great man's guide, the poor man's blame; / The soldier's lawrel, and the sigher's flame"

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: 1753

"He found me happiest of the Happy. Fortune and Honour crown'd me; and Love and Peace liv'd in my Heart. One Spark of Folly lurk'd there; That too he found; and by deceitful Breath blew it to Flames that have consum'd me."

— Moore, Edward (1712-1757)

Date: 1753

"A Furnace rages in this Heart--I have been too hasty."

— Moore, Edward (1712-1757)

Date: 1754

"Souls of tinder, discretions of flimsy gauze, that conceal not their folly--One day they will think as I do; and perhaps before they have daughters who will convince them of the truth of my assertion"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1755

"Better by far in lonesome den / To sleep unheard-of--than to glow / With treacherous wildfire of then brain, / Th' intoxicated poet's bane."

— Knight, Henrietta [née St John], Lady Luxborough (1699-1756)

Date: 1755

"The imperfect sense of some examples I lamented, but could not remedy, and hope they will be compensated by innumerable passages selected with propriety, and preserved with exactness; some shining with sparks of imagination, and some replete with treasures of wisdom."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: 1755

"However, I must beg Leave to inform those Ladies and Gentlemen, whose Tenderness and Compassion may excite 'em to make this little Brat of my Brain the Companion of an idle Hour, that I have paid all due Regard to Decency wherever I have introduc'd the Passion of Love; and have only suffer'd it ...

— Charke [née Cibber; other married name Sacheverell], Charlotte [alias Mr Brown] (1713-1760)